HATE NEVER WINS
Hate has always dressed itself up as strength. It pounds its chest and promises victory. History answers with ruins. When cruelty is crowned as virtue, it may rise quickly, but it never stands long. Civilizations have tried to mortar their foundations with fear and blood, and every time the walls have cracked from within. You can build a tower with bricks of hatred, but the first hard storm will bring it down.
The Bible shows us this truth at the very beginning. Cain did not fall because of ignorance but because anger was allowed to sit on the throne of his heart. The Lord warned him that sin was crouching at the door, ready to rule him, but Cain embraced it anyway and his brother’s blood cried out from the ground (Genesis 4:6-10). Hatred always makes promises it cannot keep. It claims it will satisfy, yet it leaves only grief and exile behind.
The Word of God often pictures hatred as a fire. Once lit, it does not stay contained. Proverbs tells us that hatred stirs up strife, like sparks jumping from log to log, while love acts as a steady hand that smothers the flames before a whole house is lost (Proverbs 10:12). Hatred multiplies conflict. Love restrains it. One destroys by spreading. The other heals by covering.
Look through the long road of history and you see the same pattern. Tyrants have sharpened hatred into a weapon and aimed it at whole peoples. They filled streets with banners and mouths with slogans, yet their reigns ended in dust. Meanwhile, the quiet power of love has kept walking forward. The abolition of slavery, the fall of legalized segregation, and the slow bending of laws toward justice did not come from mobs screaming destruction. They came from people who believed that every human being bears the image of God and acted accordingly, even when it cost them dearly.
Christ stands at the center of this story like a lighthouse in a storm. He does not deny evil, and He does not excuse injustice. Instead, He refuses to let hatred dictate His response. When nailed to the cross, He did not curse His executioners. He prayed for them (Luke 23:34). That prayer was not weakness. It was authority. It declared that hatred had reached its limit and could go no further. The resurrection was heaven’s announcement that love outlasts violence and life defeats the grave.
The apostles carried this same conviction into a hostile world. They were hunted, imprisoned, and mocked. Still, they fed the poor, blessed their enemies, and trusted God to judge rightly. Paul urged believers not to repay evil with evil, but to overcome evil with good, like a river that keeps flowing until it wears down the hardest stone (Romans 12:17-21). The church did not conquer by the sword. It conquered by faithfulness.
Hate never wins because it cannot create anything new. It can only tear down what already exists. Love builds. Love heals. Love speaks truth without poisoning the soul. The Gospel proclaims a kingdom where dividing walls are torn down, where former enemies are seated at the same table, and where peace is not enforced by fear but formed by grace through Christ (Ephesians 2:14-16).
When hatred shouts that it is unstoppable, remember how every such shout has faded before. Love keeps working long after the noise dies away. Love lasts. Love rises again. Love wins.
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Lord Jesus, cleanse our hearts from anger that hardens and pride that blinds. Teach us to love with courage, to stand for truth without bitterness, and to trust Your justice when hatred tempts us to strike back. Make us steady lights in a darkened world. Amen.
BDD
