"The Sin Of Mass Hatred"
This caption is taken from the Christian Chronicle, June 3, 1966, under the name of Gary Freeman. Otherwise I would have thought it was written by Martin Luther King. The Bible doesn't speak of "mass hatred." This is "the speech of Ashdod." The New Testament says simply, "He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:15, 16). "Mass hatred" is of the "sixties"; not apostolic.
The love and hatred of which God speaks are personal, individual. Freeman quotes Peter, too: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." But God is a respecter of character. I am responsible for the kind of character I am. In this respect, "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul," for God made me this way, and gave me the power to be like Him.
These agitators foment the hatred they pretend to deplore. I've preached to, taught Bible classes for, and personally helped more Negroes than most of these do-gooders even said "Good Morning" to! But because we respect the customs of the ages and are not in favor of forced integration of the races, we are accused of being "racists!"
. But you'll never see or hear these devotees of Martin Luther King quoting 1 Timothy 6:1-5! Williams English translation says:
"All who are under the yoke of slavery must esteem their masters to be deserving the highest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused, Those who have Christian masters must not pay them less respect because they are brothers; they must serve them all the better, because those who get the benefit of their service are believers and so are dear to them. These are the things that you must continue to teach and urge them to do..."
Then there were "Christian masters. " Are we to assume that the "Christian masters" hated their slaves, who were also Christians? Of course the Gospel doesn't teach slavery; nor does it teach trade unionism, or any other such system. I think that Christianity (if I should use this word) rather tends to make all men free in every way.
But in verses 3 to 5 of 1 Timothy 6 the writer denounces any who disagrees with the teaching about "Christian masters" and "all who are under the yoke of slavery" as "a conceited ignoramus with a morbid appetite for discussions and controversies which lead to envy, quarreling, abuse, base suspicions, and perpetual friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth,..."
Could anybody more aptly describe these who love discussions, coined phrases, etc., "which lead to envy, quarreling, abuse, base suspicions, and perpetual friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth"?
And remember, "These are the things that you must continue to teach and urge them to do.
-Rt. 2 Dora, Alabama