Hatred is foreign

But 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 (1 John 2:11)

Hatred, permanent and perpetual, is not merely the absence of love but emphatically the presence of anti-love.

But whoever hates his brother…

1. The conjunction ‘but’ differentiates this verse from the former one, in that the former is about loving a brother, whereas this one about hating a brother
2. Anyone who claims to be a Christian and yet hates his brother
   1. Is a false brother
   2. Is not a true Christian
3. Such a person is in the darkness, thereby
   1. Subjecting himself to the influence of spiritual principalities
   2. Living under the spell of spiritual authorities
   3. Suffering the deadness of the spiritual-intellectual-moral darkness
4. This one walks in the darkness
5. This ‘walk’ portrays a lifestyle; the person thus
   1. Clings on to what is evil
   2. Practices what is wrong
   3. Continues in sinning

And does not know where he is going

1. This is an intellectual state of a sinning person
   1. As to where he is actually going to
   2. As to where what he is doing actually leads him to
   3. As to where he will eventually end up
2. There are things we must know for sure; we must know
   1. What we are doing at all
   2. How we may end up as the result of what we choose to do
3. This is part of what it means to be perished as the wicked (Psalm 1:6a)

1. 1. The wicked does not know how the path he chooses would end
   2. God does not know the way of the wicked (Cf. Psalm 1:6b)

Because the darkness has blinded his eyes ( 2 Cor.4:4ff)

1. The word ‘darkness’ must be understood afresh
   1. As spiritual deadness
   2. As moral decay
   3. As hatred toward brethren
2. This kind of darkness blinds the person
3. A person hating his brethren tends to be blind toward God and his neighbors

Shall we do all that we can to be the kind of person God wants us to be! May we seek to walk as God does!