Here are seven Bible verses that address hatred and cruelty.
First John 4:20 “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.”
What the Apostle John means is that “whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1st John 2:11). If you’ve trusted in Christ, you have that light and should not be walking in the darkness. If you say, “I love God,” that means you will love the brothers and sister. You can’t say you love God but not His children! I don’t think He’d appreciate that.
Proverbs 26:24-26 “Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.”
Today it’s easy to “cook the books” at many businesses. I worked for a man years ago who didn’t report all of his income. He was disguising his actions by omitting entries into his ledger. His accounts payable was not always all that was made payable to him. No wonder Solomon said “believe him not.” When we are robbing others, we are not loving our neighbors, and if we’re not loving our neighbors, we’re still in the dark. Sooner or later, these wicked things will be exposed “in the assembly” or for all to see. No one gets away with anything, at least in the end (Rev 20:12-15).
Proverbs 11:17 “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”
Here is a great proverb because it says that it’s in our own best interests to be kind to others and that a cruel person is only hurting themselves. Someone who’s cruel to others is hurting themselves (and of course others). Being cruel to others can make us our own worst enemy, but being kind to others, despite their cruelty to you, can be your greatest benefactor, so being kind to others is a blessing because, “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). “A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor” (Prov 28:16a) and misses out on a blessing from God, “but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days” (Prov 28:16b) and will receive God’s blessings.
Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”
If you can imagine a campfire that’s been burning for several hours and it’s about to go out, when suddenly, someone stirs up the coals and the fire gets going again. When there is strife at work, at home, or in a church, the last thing you want to do is to stir it up. Why not take Solomon’s sage advice where he wrote, “A soft answer turns away wrath” but also, “a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov 15:1). A quiet, calming voice isn’t going to stir up any more strife, but a harsh word’s going to stir up strife even more. His conclusion is that “love covers all offenses” and there weren’t any exceptions that I saw in this verse or chapter. All means all, doesn’t it?
Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
The Apostle John heard this teaching from Jesus. We are to not only love our enemies, but we are to pray for our persecutors. We are not given a choice. John again writes that, “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness” (1st John 2:9), and the same thing goes for those who are our enemies and persecute us. We must love them and pray for them. It should be the least we do; remember, Jesus died for us while we were still being ungodly, wicked sinners, who were His enemies (Rom 5:6-10).
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
Whoever is persecuted for Jesus’ sake receives a great blessing as He said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:10) and “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matt 5:11). We shouldn’t be grieved over persecution and hatred, but rather “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt 5:12). That’s in great company isn’t it?
Proverbs 12:10 “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”
When I see cruelty of animals, I get very angry because we know that God loves His creatures and declared everything He created, “good” (Gen 1:31). You can learn a lot about a person by the way they treat their animals. In some cases, their pets are treated better and spoken to in kinder tones. The point is, whoever takes care of their animals and is humane in their care and treatment, is righteous in his or her actions. That doesn’t mean they’re made righteous by their treatment of animals but their treatment of animals means they have faith in the righteousness of Christ.
Conclusion
Because of the Jews hardness of hearts, Jeremiah the Prophet laments that “the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness” (Lam 4:3) who walk away from their young (eggs) and bury their heads in the sand, but it will be far worse for all those who have denied Jesus all their lives. For them, there will come a day of reckoning as Isaiah wrote, “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it” (Isaiah 13:9). God tells all of you who are not saved that it is “because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom 2:5) and “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Rom2:6-8). God’s holy wrath makes God’s mercy and grace so amazing (Eph 2:8-9). Will you trust in the Savior today?
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon
