As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Hatred of any human being is never an option for a believer in Jesus Christ.
It is easy to sinfully justify hatred, especially when the world, the community around us, encourages it. Hatred, a lust that already exists in the human heart in seminal form, doesn’t need a lot of stoking to bring it to a raging flame.
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We’re exploring God’s foundational description of himself, on the assumption—well founded in Scripture—that we ought to treat others the way he does. We’re getting to the end of the list, where there’s a cluster of attributes that we really need to discuss together.
Exodus 34.7 puts it this way:
“The hatred of others implied in Lewis’s account of Hell is something with us today as well. Indeed, recent events have surfaced that hatred in particularly dark and ugly ways. Consider the appalling reaction to the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson… with figures on both the left and right offering various versions of ‘I’m not condoning murder, but.’” - Mere Orthodoxy
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The fourth characteristic that God emphasizes about himself is that he is “abounding in lovingkindness.”
If you’ll compare the different ways that last word is translated, you find that it has a broad range of meaning and significant theological depth—
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In his foundational self-description, the first thing God tells us about himself is that he’s compassionate. By nature, he feels deeply for the hurts and trials of his creatures—even the animals (Jon 4.11), but most especially those in his image.
He cares.
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In his primary description of himself, God includes a list of related attributes (Ex 34.6-7):
Discussion