The Daily Devotional
Monday, September 15, 2025
The Poison of Hatred, the Power of Love
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7–8)
Introduction
History bears painful witness to what happens when hatred is enshrined into law and when prejudice is allowed to rule unchecked. On September 15, 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in Nazi Germany, stripping Jews of citizenship and dignity. Twenty-eight years later, on September 15, 1963, a bomb planted by white supremacists exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls preparing for worship. Both tragedies remind us that hatred destroys, but God calls His children to live in love.
Reflection
John writes that “God is love.” This is not a suggestion or a poetic phrase—it is the very foundation of Christian life. Love is not optional; it is essential. Hatred, by contrast, is corrosive. It corrodes the soul of the hater as much as it wounds the victim.
Think of it like a household drain that becomes clogged. At first, the water slows down. Then the foul smell rises, and eventually the whole sink becomes unusable. Hatred works in a similar way—it clogs the flow of God’s grace, filling hearts with bitterness and leaving no room for compassion. Only when the clog is cleared by forgiveness, mercy, and love can living water flow freely again.
The Nuremberg Laws and the Birmingham bombing both began with small clogs—whispers of prejudice, attitudes of exclusion—that were left unchecked until they grew into deadly consequences. Scripture calls us to vigilance: to unclog our hearts daily, so hatred has no place to take root.
Application
Today, examine your own life for subtle forms of exclusion. Do you avoid certain neighbors? Harbor resentment toward a coworker? Hold bitterness against someone who wronged you long ago? These may seem small, but left unchallenged, they can grow into something destructive.
Choose instead to make love your guiding action. Reach out with kindness where you feel estrangement. Offer forgiveness where you’ve held a grudge. Seek connection instead of isolation. When we love as God loves, we resist the poisons of history and witness to the healing power of Christ.
Conclusion
The anniversaries of the Nuremberg Laws and the Birmingham church bombing remind us that hatred, when nurtured, destroys lives and societies. But God has given us a different way: the way of love. To love one another is to resist the darkness and to live as children of the Light.
Prayer
God of love and mercy, we remember with sorrow the lives broken and lost to hatred and exclusion. Cleanse our hearts from every root of bitterness. Teach us to walk in love, to seek justice, and to honor the dignity of every person made in Your image. Help us to forgive where we have been hurt and to repent where we have caused harm. May our lives shine with Your love, so that hatred may find no place among us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Devotional by: Kenny Sallee, ThM — Deming, NM, USA
The Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV)© 1989, 1993, the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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