Q1. Unforgiveness and Blindness

[Craig]

Q1. (1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

It masks the fact that engaging in hate and unforgiveness is living in darkness. It is not following the way, the truth, and the life. While a person may say that he is a follower of Christ any actions that disobey his commands would suggest that person is a follower only in word -- lip service -- not in life style.

A person comes into the light by turning his/her hurt and hate over to God and forgiving the person(s) responsible. Forgiving others frees a person from hurt and hate. That is truth and Jesus said truth will set you free.

[Guitar Jim]

Q1. (1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually?

 

If we live with unforgiveness in our hearts towards others, God will not forgive us our own sins. Continuous, long-term hatred for those who've wronged us will eat us up.

 

 

 

If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

 

We can forgive them in Christ and then ask God to help us live out that forgiveness in our daily lives. It's one thing to say: I forgive so-and-so, but we need to ask God to help us demonstrate that forgiveness by not complaining about what they've done to us on a regular basis and to not think about and dwell on their treatment of us. That's hard to do when the people we're trying to forgive are still actively hurting us. We need grace and Divine help to accomplish that.

[wifee]

1a)Hate&unforgiveness means we walk in darkness in our thoughts&actions,this blinds us spiritually, we are cut off from Father’s forgiveness for own sins.
b)Can’t do it in our own power.We can come into the light by praying confessing my sin &asking help of HS to let go of our hurt,hate&bitterness of others.

[Old Jerry]

By hating and not forgiving others blinds us spiritually because it keeps this is on our hearts all the time. It will eat at you and the other person may not even know that something is wrong and they can live a life of joy. So if we have been darkened by a hurt or a hate we can come into the light by forgiving that person.

[tgandy]

Hate and unforgiveness blind so spiritually in that they consume.  We leave no room except for vengeance.  Love frees us from the fire of hate.  When this happens to us we can come into the light with love.  Confess to the Father, forgive and forget.  Let love fill your heart.

[smithj77]

Q1. (1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

 

God is light and if we are in the darkness we are without God.  We must repent and moreover, forgive others who have sinned against us.  for God, will not forgive us if we don't forgive others.  We will live in the darkness.

[JSF]

(1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

 

Hate and unforgiveness is in the darkness, apart from God.  God is light and in Him there is no darkness.  I must pray for God to forgive through me and I must pray FOR the people who have hurt me.   I must truly desire to be rid of the resentment and bitterness and to want to embrace the people in love.

[JSF]

(1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

 

Hate and unforgiveness is in the darkness, apart from God.  God is light and in Him there is no darkness.  I must pray for God to forgive through me and I must pray FOR the people who have hurt me.   I must truly desire to be rid of the resentment and bitterness and to want to embrace the people in love.

[Uncle Dave]

How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually?

Because both hate and unforgiveness leaves one to walk in the darkness. If one stumbles in the dark it is because he/she can’t see. I was once in a cave which had electric lights strung along a pathway to keep people from falling into the underground river which ran by the path. As long as the lights were on it was easy to see, but for a demonstration of what darkness is they turned out the lights for a moment and you could not see even ¼ of an inch in front of your eyes. Before turning the lights back on we were given time for our eyes to “adjust to the dark” as one might say but there was no adjustment. Just as there was no adjustment for the darkness in a cave, so it is with hate/unforgivenss. Both lead to other sins and all of a sudden a person looking at the consequences will say “I didn’t see that one coming.” It catches up with you and even if you know its going to happen you are “in the dark” as to when.

If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

To come into the light one needs to start forgiving people for everything that has ever happened to you and quit being upset/bitter about it. Sometimes, especially for a new believer or a believer to be this can be hard to do, but, if one asks God for the strength and perseverance to get over the past and trust Him to do it He will. It doesn’t always happen overnight, but you have to begin if you want to get into the light and quit swimming through the haunting effects of darkness.
 

[haar]

. (1 John 2:7-11)

Q. How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually?

A. It makes us spiritually blind and thus prevent us from seeing things as the Lord sees them such as the ugliness of sin or the need to forgive

Q. If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

A. By coming to the Light, the lord God Almighty to repent of our sin of un- forgiveness and also to love and forgive others

[Reuben]

Q1. (1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

Hate and unforgiveness clutters our mind and darkens our thinking, and removes us from the light, because we have this dark cloud following us every day. This removes us , and hinders us from having a spiritual walk in the light , loving, as it should be, and God wants us to have this. We can get this fixed if we ask God to give us the strength to humble ourselves and forgive those we begrudge, and ask God for forgiveness. Remember we are reminded that we can only receive forgiveness, if we forgive others.

[Krissi]

How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

I didn't see anything about unforgiveness in this passage, just hate, but can understand why you believe unforgiveness is a consequence of hate. I read through a few of the comments and was struck by the order of events in our lives:

• first,we are hurt, betrayed, unfairly treated, abused;
• second, we fester hate and bitterness;
• third, that hate and bitterness impacts our Christian faith until we deal with it which is called forgiveness.

I wonder what real forgiveness is like. Someone wrote that forgiveness is not a feeling but a choice. I agree, but sheer determination seems to be a far cry from love, which is the chapter's focus. Perhaps deciding to forgive is only the first step. Another commenter said that we truly love others when we pray for them, not about them. 

John tells us to keep Jesus' commands or we are not true believers. We know we are keeping His commands when we act out of love for Him, not love for others. When we obey His word, love for God is made complete. 

The analogy of darkness/blind/old  and light/sight/new are  clusters of related ideas.

Okay, now I'll answer your questions, if I can -- finally! 

First, hate is unforgiveness even though there are separate words for both. Unforgiveness is sin, and all sins separates us from God. In a way, hatred precedes some sins -- If I were to murder someone, it wouldn't be out of love but hatred or vengeance or any of the sins that seem like hatred. Since darkness=hate=sin=unforgiveness are opposed to the light, we are blinded spiritually.

Second, this is the harder question to answer. After hate comes into us, it seems we're blinded to it -- at best, partly aware. The Holy Spirit's function is to bring that hatred or sin to light, which means we are aware of it and somewhat motivated to deal with it. Then, by His power, we pray over our sinful condition and ask for help. To some degree, we can coerce ourselves into loving not hating, but I'm not certain this results in a true love.

--

I'm sorry, but I can't go much deeper than this because of my own hatred toward people who have deeply wronged me. 

 

 

[Rob Mc.]

 (1 John 2:7-11) How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually?

If we are unable to forgive others when they do wrong against us, we are living in the darkness.  The darkness is total, so we cannot see the Way anymore: we are spiritually blind.  We have not followed God's second greatest command:  Love thy Neighbor.

If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light?

Though we struggle to forgive those that hurt us, we must forgive them and “get beyond” it.  Carrying this burden really hurts us more than it hurts the one who harmed us.  As we forgive (and forget, as much as possible), our own burden lifts, we are again open to the Word, and we can rejoice in the fact that we just came one step closer to God.