But the one who 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
Yesterday in the connections service, Davin led us through a passage that included this verse. Davin’s message was awesome and straight to the point about loving one another as Christians. As Davin was preaching, this verse continued to stand out to me for some reason but I just couldn’t put my finger on it until this morning.
The term “the darkness has blinded his eyes” is what drew me to this verse because I recently had an experience that taught me what this really means. Last week, Mandy and I went to Dialog in the Dark in Atlanta. If you have never heard of Dialog in the Dark, it is an experience that teaches you what it is like to blind. During the experience you are guided by a visually impaired person through rooms that depict normal everyday experiences. For example, one room is set up like a park, one like a grocery store, one like a street intersection and so on. Within each of these rooms you have to navigate to a particular place while being aware of what is going on around you. All of this is done is pitch black darkness. These rooms are set up in such a way that there is no way of seeing even the smallest beam of light. At one point during the experience, I held my hand up right in front of my eyes, moved my hand back and forth, and I could not see any of this going on. As we were guided through the rooms of the experience I realized how difficult the simplest everyday tasks were when my vision had been taken away. At one point we were tasked with the chore of crossing the street. The object was to push a button to get the traffic light to change, step off the curb, make it through the intersection, and avoid being hit by a car in process. I found the button to change the traffic signal, made it off the curb, went the wrong way in the intersection, and was told by our guide “you just got hit by a car.” This experience made me realize how quickly you can get off course when you are blinded by darkness.
I believe that John is making the same point when he talks about being blinded by the darkness. John’s first statement is; “the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness.” The word brother is used throughout the Bible to describe Christians. When we are saved by Christ we become part of the family of God and we gain a multitude of Christian brothers and sisters. John uses this verse to describe the danger of hating other Christians. Hatred is the direct opposite of love in the same way that darkness is the direct opposite of light. Christ is described in the Bible as the light of the world and there is no darkness in Him (John 9:5). If Christ is the light of the world then it is impossible to truly walk with Christ and walk in the darkness because they are complete opposites. John goes on to say that the darkness of hatred throws us off course and blinds our vision. If we say that we love Christ and hate another Christian, we open the door to the danger of becoming a stumbling block (1 John 2:10). Think about it this way; are you more likely to stumble in the darkness or in the light? As familiar as I am with my house, I can’t count the number of times I ran into something in my house because it was dark and I could not see. I have yet to run into anything when all of the lights are on.
So, what do we do with all of this information? John is showing Christians the impossibility of loving God and hating other Christians. As Christians we are called to love in any and all situations. When we allow hatred to become part of our daily lives, it will always affect our relationship with the Lord in a negative way. However, when we take God’s word, and prayer, and we make them the central part of our daily lives; God uses these things to spread light and love in our lives. When we love Christ and focus on His word in our daily lives, we draw closer to Him and begin to exhibit His qualities in our lives. His qualities include love and love should become our best quality as well. The challenge today is for us as Christians to open our eyes and notice those around us that need the love of Christ. We have to open our eyes and see that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to love one another just as Christ loves us. Love your brothers and sisters today and allow the light of Christ to shine out of you today.
What are people saying?