THE OUTSIDE PROVES THE INSIDE

Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirreth up strifes:
but love covereth all sins.

The Bible is a very simple book. The Bible is a very simple book because God is a very simple God. God is not ethereal; God is ‘entirely-real’. Some people want to teach us that the realm of the Spirit is neither comprehensible nor tangible to us, but the Bible teaches us that we understand the things of the spirit by the elements of earth (Romans 1:20).

In the relative world of today, not even hatred and love have defined concepts. People want convince themselves and others that they are loving, but reality shows that they wreak havoc everywhere around them. How can that be? Faith in God is proven by a life of godly works and attitude. If the life of godly works and attitude are not present, neither is the faith. The fruits of what is inside are proven by the outside actions. The life inside emanate on the outside. The same goes with love and hate. If there is love inside, there is no strife outside.

In our passage today, we learn that it is hate that stirs up strife. One cannot claim to love if his life is marked with strife and contention with others. We are to hate and strive against evil, against false doctrine. We are to contend for the faith; uphold the right; hate the wrong; not hate people.

When someone constantly searches for the point of disagreement that causes strife, it simply reveals the hatred that dwells in his heart. It reveals the hatred in his heart because love does the exact opposite. Love finds a way to cover the sin; it seeks to hide the offense. That was, and still is, the main work of the Messiah. Not that the offense does not occur; He does not obliterate it; He simply covers as snow covers the ground with a sheet of white.

May the Almighty El Shaddai help us to come to grips with the reality of our lives. Is our life marked with contention; constant fighting and ‘bad blood’? Then we need to realize that somewhere we have a hate problem to uncover. We may need to follow its thread all the way back to childhood and uproot it. Only then we will stop trying to validate ourselves through conflict with others. Only then we will feel secure enough to cover others offenses towards us. Our heart must break to empty itself of its poisonous puss, and be filled instead with the balm of God’s love and Spirit.