I Do Not Love My Wicked Brother
I Do Not Love My Wicked Brother
Question:
The Scripture says: “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20). Yet I love the holy God, but I do not love my brother because of his wickedness and his bad behavior. How can this be?
Answer:
You are supposed to hate evil, not evil people.
As for your wicked brother, do not hate him. Rather, pray for him, that God may lead him to repentance, so that he may be delivered from his wickedness and his soul may be saved.
God did not hate the wicked world, but saved it. Concerning this it was said: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). It was also said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Of course, He loved it in its wickedness in order to save it from its wickedness. Likewise, it is written in the Epistle to the Romans: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
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