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I just wanted to take just a moment to offer a thought about what’s going on in our country today, specifically the sad sad stories coming out of Charlottesville. You know, I don’t know about you but I was completely shocked and appalled by what transpired on Saturday – the violence and the vile, hateful talk, words that were flung against minorities and against Jewish people.
I was reminded of something that happened to me as a little girl. One day I was with my dad who was a pastor in Eastern Tennessee at the time. We were visiting with someone – someone I think we maybe didn’t know very well. During that conversation the man said something negative about interracial marriage. It’s really the first time I had maybe ever heard someone bring up this issue. When we got outside I said to my dad “what do you think about that? What he just said?” He said, “Penny, you cannot love God and hate your brother.”
I love the verse he was pointing me to. “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
I just want to make this brief point: This hateful, insidious ideology coming out of the KKK, coming out of the neo-Nazis, and these white supremacist groups is antithetical to Christianity. In fact, the Bible gives us the absolute opposite view. Galatians 3:28 says “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
You see, together at the foot of the cross there is complete equality. We are all one in Christ. And anyone who does not see that, who does not believe that, cannot have Christ in them. So I would ask you today to join in prayer for people around this country, that we can unite in Christ, and that we can unite in truth and love and goodness. We must be very clear in our beliefs and defend what the Bible says on love and what really unites us.