Hearing and doing the Word: learning how not to hate people
Hearing and doing the Word often involves learning not to hate people in the various ways in which it is possible to hate. When we become aware that hatred is verboten, it sets in motion a sequence of events that uncomfortably fructifies us as we realise the presence in us of recurring violations; and consequently, in a state of humiliation, we confess to our own hearts, in the presence of God, our insufficiency to liberate ourselves from chains of which we were not aware. Romans 7:7 - King James Version <7> What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Violations of the commandment not to hate recur like the impulse to smoke a cigarette recurs to the addict. Similarly, the violations are pleasurable. There is a Hellish pleasure and a Heavenly pleasure, a pleasure in chains and a pleasure in liberty, a pleasure in uselessness and a pleasure in use. If we feed t...