Love Versus Hate

Love Versus Hate

By Keith Bellamy

Last Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

My parents didn’t teach us to hate other people because of the color of their skin. For that matter we would get in trouble for even mistreating an animal.  I have never understood why anyone would think it was alright to mistreat anyone.  I never understood the Jim Crowe law, even when it existed.  Sadly, even so-called Christians demonize other races.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

I like that statement.  It sounds like good advice.

Notice the words of Jesus:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31; NIV)

When hate spews out of one’s heart what does that say?  Someone said hate contaminates the container it is in.  

Mark Twain said, "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

I know a man who spent 37-1/2 years incarcerated.  I asked him what turned him around.  He said the love of Jesus Christ changed him.

I think I will choose love over hate!

What about you?  Do you choose love over hate?