Choose Love, Not Hate – Character Means Everything

Preached on October 20, 2024

Choose love, not hate may sound like a catchy slogan but there is a great deal of importance with this choice. Watch this week’s message as Pastor McCrary preaches why one should choose to be a character of love and not hate. We must understand, who we choose to be plays an important role whether or not Christ will permit us to enter His pasture.

Introduction

Character – who you choose to be in life is everything.  Today, we are faced with the choice of whether or not we will be love or hate?  This choice shouldn’t be a difficult one to make, yet, the world is still suffering today because many are choosing death rather than life.  In today’s message, we will see why it is so important for us to choose love, not hate.  

Character is Important

Let us remember that there is a door that is sat before us by Christ and then there are the other doors of the world that sit before us as well.  The door sat before us by Christ leads to life everlasting in His pasture to those who choose to enter by faith.  To move by such faith requires one to lay aside their skepticism and to also believe they can be forgiven and saved.

Something we must also understand is that character also plays a major role in one being able to enter and dwell in the pasture of Christ.  We know character is important because Jesus taught that we should love the Lord with our whole heart.  Jesus plainly said that we should also love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:36-40).  A character of love is required to be able to enter and dwell in the pasture of Christ.

Who will you be?

In Proverbs 22:1, the proverb tells us that a name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.  You choose who you will be and will be known as in this life.  We were made to grow and prosper together in unity, choosing life over riches.  We should love and value helping and lifting each other up rather than living for selfish gain.  Who will you be?

In Proverbs 22:4, the proverb tells us that to those who choose humility, fearing the Lord, belongs riches and honor and life.  Again, those who choose to love life over the riches of this world, will be favored and greatly blessed.  So, the character we should aim for is that of love, grace, humility, and God-fearing.  Again, I ask, who will you be?

Warning Against Choosing Darkness

In his first epistle, John also spoke about character and defined the difference between two character choices that we must pay attention to.  For example, in 1 John 2:3, John wrote, “we know that we know [the Lord], if we keep His commandments.”  Then, John wrote in 1 John 2:4, “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

There are many that love to say that they love the Lord, know Him, and are in fellowship with Him.  However, many who say such things aren’t actually in fellowship with Him because they don’t live in obedience.  Let’s be very clear about this, if you live in disobedience – disobeying God’s command – you are living sinfully.  God has commanded that we love Him and that we love our neighbor (Matt. 22:36-40).

In 1 John 3:7-10, John wrote, “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest (defined).”  Those who practice righteousness, John stated, will have a righteous character just as the Lord is righteous (1 John 3:7).  However, those who sin are of the devil with their character being as his (1 John 3:8).  John then concluded that whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor are those who do not love their brother (1 John 3:10).

The character and path one should take, John wrote, has been shared with us in a message from the beginning.  That message, again, is that we should love one another (1 John 3:11).  Then, John gives a very dire warning should one choose to turn away from choosing the path of love.  John warned that one should not choose to do as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother (1 John 3:12).

Going down the path that Cain chose to go down is choosing to go down a very dark path.  Nobody should dare go down the same path that Cain went down!  This is a thought that puts me in mind of Yoda’s quote from Empire Strikes Back:  “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.”

What Will You Bring to God?

After reading Cain’s story for our responsive reading, we see that our story and his story have one thing in common.  Cain’s story began with the same choice that’s given to all people by the Lord.  The choice:  what will one bring (or give) to God in how they choose to live?

Something we must remember is that God has given all of us the gift of life in this world.  Life is a miracle.  The fact that we are living and breathing should not be taking for granted.  Therefore, we should always take into serious consideration the choices we make and how we choose to treat this life that we are living.

Choose to give your best

In Genesis 4:2-3, we are told that at an appointed time, Cain brought forth an offering to God that was of the fruit of the ground.  Considering that he was a tiller of the ground, this being the fruit he gave makes sense.  First time bible readers would consider that nothing seems bad about what he gave to God.

Abel, his brother, we are told was a keeper of sheep – a shepherd.  When he came before the Lord, Abel offered the firstborn of his flock and of their fat (Gen. 4:4).  Many of us don’t understand that it’s not easy as a keeper – protector – of a flock to give up the oldest (firstborn) of the flock.  

After their offerings, scripture makes it clear that the Lord respected Abel’s offering but did not respect Cain’s offering (Gen. 4:4-5).  It is from this moment forward that Cain’s story takes a very dark turn.  

The question that some of us may have is why did God respect Abel’s offering but not Cain’s offering?  In Hebrews 11:4, the writer stated that “by faith” Abel came before the Lord and offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.  You see, there was an important difference in how both men came before the Lord.  

Abel came before God by faith – with a sincere heart – and offered out of love and thanksgiving.  By giving the firstborn of his flock, Abel gave what was most special.  Cain, on the other hand, did not come by faith before the Lord.  Yes, Cain gave from the fruit of his labor, but his giving lacked sincerity, love, care, and thanksgiving.

It is shown to us in Isaiah 1:10-13 that God does not respect when one comes before Him and their heart isn’t for Him.  God told a sinful Israel, which He likened to Sodom and Gomorrah during that period of time, not to bring any more futile offerings to Him.  God considered their offerings futile because their hearts were more for idols than for Him.

Cain’s character was poor and not respected by the Lord because he didn’t respect God in his giving.  Everyday that we are in this world, we have to answer the question:  Are we giving our best and respecting life?  Everyday is a day to give to God but are we choosing to give the day to the Lord or not?

To give our best, the Lord has told us to move with love and not hate.  We should love the fact that we are living and breathing.  We should love the fact that God continues to make a way for us.  When we choose love, we are choosing to go the route of uplifting others by being helpful and supportive.  Being helpful and supportive breathes life into the world!

However, when we choose hate, we must understand we are choosing a route that is anti (opposite of) God’s way.  Choosing hate is choosing to give to God no help and no support.  Choosing hate is choosing to go in an incredibly selfish way that breathes death into the world.  This is choosing a character that moves with great evil.

Walking the Dark Path

Something we often fail to realize about Cain’s story is that he was given the same love that we receive from the Lord.  You see, after he had become so angry that his offering wasn’t respected, God came and spoke to him.

In Genesis 4:7, God said to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”  This was God rebuking Cain and giving him a second chance – another opportunity to do well.  This is the same mercy that the Lord shows us every day we live.  Yoda was wrong in that the dark path does not have to dominate your destiny – one can turn from it.  So, what we choose to do with God’s mercy is incredibly important.  

Do you make changes in your person or do you disregard God’s rebuke?  I’m going to be very frank with you when I say that some of us seriously need to consider the character we have chosen today.  Rather than choosing love, many of us have chosen silver, gold, power, riches, idols and other men.  Rather than choosing love, many of us who are supposed to be God’s children have chosen hatred, lies, harm, pride, and ego.

Some of us have heard God’s rebuke that we should love our neighbor but we disregard the Lord as we disregard our neighbors.  Some of us are moving in bitter hate today against our neighbors through our own actions and through supporting actions taken against our neighbors.  It’s one thing to sin unknowingly, it’s a completely different thing to knowingly move out of anger and hate.

Many people are choosing to go in the way of Cain.  You see, Cain disregarded God’s rebuke.  Cain let his anger boil over into hate and envy.  Genesis 4:8 shows us that Cain rose up against his brother and killed him.  As I said before, hate breathes death into this world.

Killing our neighbors rather than loving them

 Some of you may be thinking to yourself, ‘well Pastor, I haven’t gone off and killed anyone.’  I tell you that there’s more ways to kill a person than by blunt objects, knives, guns, or any other physical weapons to kill physically.  

James wrote that the tongue is “a fire, a world of iniquity (wickedness) … and sets on fire the course of nature (Jas. 3:6).”  Then James wrote that the tongue is an “unruly evil, full of deadly poison (Jas. 3:8).”

We see it today how the lying tongue is setting the world on fire with its lies creating fear, anxiety, stress, and worry.  The lying and deceiving tongue of hate abuses, threatens, and brings great harm to us mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.  When one walks this path, they are setting themselves against God. 

After he chose to kill his brother, God cursed Cain with a punishment that Cain said was greater than he could bear (Gen. 4:13).  A distraught Cain said to the Lord, “I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me (Gen. 4:14).”  It was after his great sin that Cain began to realize the reality of his choice as he had no desire to be hidden from God.

Choose to Walk in the Light

This is a message about character— who you will choose to be.  Will you choose the light or will you choose the dark?  Cain chose to open up to sin and its wickedness and he was led down a dark path.  His story shouldn’t be glorified but should serve as a warning to everybody about choosing sin to be who you are.

Our character should be one that is of the light of God.  John stated in 1 John 2:9, “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.  You don’t truly love the Lord if you don’t care about the lives of others.  It is not enough to say that you love the Lord!  You must actually walk in the manner of love and favor that God has shown you.

In 1 John 2:10, John wrote, “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”  Let’s understand that when we choose to love our brother – all of those around us – we can never stumble.  As scripture states in Ecclesiastes 4:10, when we are together, if one falls, our companions will lift us up.  Not only will we lift each other up but God is also never going to let us fall (fail).

Here is where I remind you once again that Cain could have enjoyed such a life of being respected just as his brother but he chose otherwise.  I repeat this because I want all of those in the world today who are filled with so much hatred to know that God’s door is still there.  You don’t have to be filled with hatred and you don’t have to follow those who are filled with hate.  

John stated in 1 John 2:11 that those who choose to hate others and walk in darkness end up blinded by darkness, not knowing where they are going.  While they may not know where they are going, we do.  John wrote in 1 John 3:14 that he who does not love his brother abides in death. 

This is a great concern of mine because so many are now blinded by hate and are ignorant of where it leads.  Hatred is no laughing matter when it’s corrupting your soul and separating you from the Lord.  Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer of the soul has eternal life in the kingdom of God.  I want you to understand that Christ will not let you enter His fold and into His pasture if you are a character of iniquity.

Anybody that is filled with hate, anger, and bitterness, I say to you that you still have the ability to choose love and life everlasting.  So, it is imperative that if you have chosen darkness, choose life and love.  I call on you to come to the light, walk in it, and take on the character of one who truly is a child of God.