What happens when you find yourself in a relationship (work, school, kin, someone you have to deal with) with someone who is arrogant? For example, the brothers of Joseph (Gen. 37) considered their younger brother to be haughty. I don’t think he was, but they thought he was.
What happens when a subordinate of yours increases
in popularity or acclaim so that people speak more highly of him than of
you? An illustration would be Saul’s
jealousy of young David (1 Sam. 18:6-7).
What happens when someone else achieves a
success that you had sought but did not attain?
For example, think about Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1-8). Cain was the oldest. Yet Abel pleased God while Cain did not.
What happens when someone is blessed by God in
a way that you are convinced you will never experience? Take Hagar and Sara (Gen. 16:5-6). Sara gave Hagar to Abram; Hagar conceived;
Sara was convinced she was too old to ever bear a child.
What happens when someone is blessed in a way
he clearly didn’t deserve, while you believe you deserve the blessing but have
never received it? Remember the prodigal
son and his brother (Lk. 15:25-32)? The
prodigal returned to his father and dad threw a party. The older brother did as the father desired
and never got a party.
Every one of these illustrations came to
involve the sins of “hatred.” Each
situation involved someone who did not understand or accept God’s will. Some were impatient. But in each, one person lashed out at the
other.
In Gal. 5:20 we find
four “sins of hatred.”
·
Hatred: This is enmity, the central sin
in this group. It is the state or
actions of an enemy against his foe.
·
Contentions: This is the expression of enmity:
strife or discord, constant or frequent argument.
·
Jealousies: This has a good and a bad side. On the good side it refers to zeal,
especially in maintaining a relationship.
On the bad side it is desiring to be what someone else is. This is the motive for hatred: we hate
because someone else is something we are not but want to be.
·
Outbursts of wrath: This is the tactic of one
who hates. It is to be filled with
passion so that you are not in control of your words and actions. These are sudden, usually short-lived and
long-regretted.
The usual order of
these sins is thus …
Jealousies
>>> Hatred >>> Contentions >>> Outbursts of wrath!
What do we do when we sin in this fashion? What must be “put on” in their place? We will consider this in the coming posts.
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