Thought for the Day

Verse 10 - Throughout the ages, evil men have sought to kill the righteous. An evil man hates anyone who tries to stop him from continuing in wickedness. Because a righteous man's deeds expose him as evil, and he does not want his deeds to be shown for what they are, he attempts to silence the righteous. The first account of this is found in the Bible when Cain slew Abel, his brother. Abel was obedient to God's plan for offering sacrifices, while Cain decided to offer his sacrifice differently, violating God's instructions. When God accepted Abel's offering, and had no respect for Cain's offering, it made Cain very angry. He did not really care about pleasing God. He was concerned only that God had not honored him, and that Abel's offering made his own offering look bad. This anger led Cain to murder his brother. "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous" (1 John 3:11-12).

As Christians, we are responsible for more than just our outward actions, for God looks on our hearts as well as our deeds. It is vital that we ask God to deliver us of any hatred, for it is the same as murder in God's eyes. We must overcome evil with good (Romans 12:17-21), learning not only to restrain anger and repent of hatred, but to do what we can to win the souls of those who hate us. We must pray for them and try to find ways to win them to Christ or at least to influence them for good.

Verse 11 - A fool says everything that comes to mind and easily expresses his anger. A wise man rather chooses what he says, restraining his anger until he can deal with his thoughts and feelings properly. Anger can be righteous or unrighteous. Most people experience a righteous anger at injustice when evil men hurt innocent people. It spurs people to action against the wicked. Unrighteous anger, like Cain's, springs from pride and selfishness. It is not to be vented on others by shouting or throwing things. It is to be controlled by confessing it to God, asking Him to remove it from our hearts and grant us His perspective of the situation, and by forgiving whoever angered us.