1 John 3:11-13–For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Because I love sports, I watch and listen to sports radio/shows.  But it isn’t like it used to be, where sports is the main focus.  So much of the discussions are around the “drama” of the athletes, and how social media finds a way to have an influence on the athletes response to the drama.  Much of the drama is fueled by people who don’t play, but hate someone who does!
Because hatred comes from the heart, the person doesn’t have to do anything to us, they just have to expose what we don’t like about ourselves.  For example a professional athlete could make us jealous, if we work hard and struggle to make ends meet.  Or we desired to play sports, but we were not good enough, we could still be jealous.  Or the fact that someone gets worldwide attention, for something that is not important to society at large, so we stay jealous…(Matthew 15:18-20)
This was the problem with Cain, and why he let evil overcome him to kill his brother.  Instead of taking responsibility for what Abel’s deeds exposed about him.  He decided to kill the person who stimulated his own jealousy!  So instead of allowing Abel’s righteousness to help him examine himself, he used it to further hate his brother…
Do you take responsibility for your own lack of love towards people?  Or do you find ways to justify further hating them?  Which exposes our lack of love and knowledge of God (1 John 3:11-24).  So these days, instead of repenting to God in self-examination or trying to reconcile, we have platforms of social media to express our hate!
Fight not to allow the culture to persuade you to embrace the normalcy of “hating on” people for what they do.  Sure some things/people should provoke our disdain, but be careful that you are not overcome with hate, because that cast a widespread net from your heart…(Psalm 97:10, Proverbs 4:23)
In His Love, Ld