From Hatred to Christian Love

JESUS CHRIST said concerning his true followers: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.” (John 13:35) Even some who have become genuine Christians formerly hated each other. Only Jehovah God could have helped them to change their attitude. Evidence of this is apparent in the following experience from a Caribbean island:

“I was a leader in a certain political party that was interested in seeing a change in government. We used various means to gain that end, and so I heard that a detective had been assigned to follow me and to catch me. Since I now knew about what was happening, I was ready and on the alert in case this person should appear. If I had met up with him, I do not know what would have happened, but a tragedy could easily have occurred. In my heart I began to hate him as a symbol of what I was against. However, I went to New York, and it was there that I began to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. I left my former associations and affiliations with the political party and changed my life to serve Jehovah.”

In time, this man returned to his homeland. He continues:

“One day I was working at an assembly [of Jehovah’s Witnesses] and, being a cook, was helping out in the kitchen. One person asked me, ‘Say, Brother B​——, how did you learn the truth?’ I began to explain and mentioned how thankful I was to Jehovah that I had never met the detective who had been following me because something terrible might have happened. At that moment another brother, who had been washing the pots and pans, rushed over and asked, ‘Are you Brother B​——?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, to which he replied: ‘Do you know who I am? I am the former detective who was assigned to get you.’

“What a scene then took place! We shook hands, hugged each other and slapped each other on the back. Tears of happiness flowed. The kitchen became a place of joy and happiness more than ever before as work stopped and all joined in the special moment. There in that assembly kitchen was living proof of how hate can be turned into love by the power of Jehovah’s spirit and his loving-kindness.”