Haters Gonna Hate
Are you grumpy? Complaining about everything that is happening around you? The boss and co-workers are changing some things around, and you're becoming irritable? Your favorite restaurant changed the menu, how dare they. Facebook added stories (what the heck is that?) and now your beloved social media is different. Your friend can’t hang out as much because of a job, sport, serving at church, etc…
We all have experiences when we can complain, grumble about others, gossip, argue, etc… This is no different from the church almost 2,000 years ago.
Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door! (James 5:9)
James writes to the church. The hating, gossip, and complaining about each other needs to stop. James is writing to the Jews that have converted to Christianity scattered across many different cities. As he writes this letter, the capital ‘C’ church (all churches that follow Jesus Christ) were dealing with drama within. The struggle was not outside the church; it wasn’t because of persecution outside (that occurred as well) but within. The brothers and sisters in Christ.
Those closest to us hurt us the most
This same issue continues to exist today. Brothers and sisters in Christ continue to trash each other. Complaining about ‘how’ they do things, ‘why’ they look a certain way, ‘what' they think about a topic. Instead of uniting under the one thing that matters, Jesus, we argue about the non-essential things.
Blaming others is often easier than owning up to our issues. A great example of this is Adam and Eve; they sinned, but when they were confronted by God they blamed anything or anyone else. Adam blames it on the women (good call bro, that’s gonna work out great for you) then Eve blames the serpent. When we sin and mess up, we need to take responsibility for it.
WE UNITE UNDER THE NAME OF JESUS
You are sinful; you will mess up, you can’t always trust your thoughts. So don’t fight the taking responsibility for your actions and apologize. If someone else is expecting you to have it all together, they lack greatly. But we can know that Christ has given us a playbook, actions to follow, a plan. And when we look to Him and only Him we discover what matters.
Today, recognize that you may have been hating on others, brothers and sisters, friends and strangers. And that type of thinking and action is not beneficial. We are to follow Christ and share His love. He will be the judge.
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