“But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

We fall into hatred because we have started to walk in the darkness. Somehow we have given in to a temptation, or decided on a sinful way of behaving, and we set off into the dark road of disobedience again. We cannot be walking in the light of God, if we are hating other people, or hating anyone or any group of people. It is our natural inclination to be exclusivistic and leave other people out, but it is not the way of God.

This separate attitude lies behind racism, sexism, ageism, and any “ism” that keeps people apart and down. It is a kind of blind philosophy that makes us believe that we and people like us are better or more worthy. It is an entirely false premise and leads to the divisions in human society that lead to conflict and wars. We cannot see what is obvious, because we are blinded by our prejudice and foolish mindset. We are walking in the darkness.

Walking in the darkness of this world and it’s philosophies always leads to spiritual and emotional blindness and leads us ultimately to the darkened grave. We need to throw off every encumbrance that would keep us locked in these chains of darkness and confess our sin and start to walk in the light, as Christ is in the light. Only He can dispel the spiritual blindness and cause us to see our error and repent.

It is easy to get into the darkness. We just walk in the way of our own ideas and we will find ourselves in the deep water of moral blindness and spiritual despair. It takes a work of God to get us out of this trouble and get our eyes opened to the reality of our situation and seek forgiveness. There is no one more merciful than the Lord, for His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting and never fails us. God never gives up on His people and is long suffering, not willing that any should perish but that we will all come to repentance once more.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:7

Let us not continue in the dark, but throw off the weights of blindness and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and seek the good of all and witness to all of the saving power of God. Let us walk in the glory and peaceableness of the light and obey our Lord Jesus and emulate all His attitudes and ways that lead us into holy and loving lives.