“Created To Be Hated”

I pulled up behind a black sports car with tinted windows at a stop light only to read this sticker in his back window.

I don’t know why I’m even shocked at a negative bumper sticker, or anything else, for that matter.  So much of our culture defines itself in the negative:  “Hate the haters,” “Don’t hate me cause you ain’t me.”

As Christians surrounded and immersed in this atmosphere, it is difficult not to join in…  share with the world only that which we hate, don’t believe in, or shun.  Forgetting the old song “They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love.”

Yet, even if we share ourselves in positive terms, the prejudice and intolerance of the world is not comfortable in the light of God’s love.  Christ warns us, “If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first.” John 15:18.

I don’t believe Christ used a negative statement to create a divide, but to show us love and encourage us to be merciful and gracious with a world of sinners that do not know or understand the unconditional love of Christ.

Not one of us was created to be hated; only once sin entered in did we become hated.  Only in choosing to walk with Christ am I willing to be hated in order that I might learn to love those who hate me.