Proverbs 29:10 ¶ The bloodthirsty hate the upright: but the
just seek his soul.
As Cain in his self-righteous worship
unwanted by God hated his brother Abel and murdered him as related in Genesis,
chapter 4, so Christ warns His disciples throughout the Gospel of John that the
world will hate them because it hates Him. It is particularly interesting that
the most bloodthirsty murderers of Christians between the Roman Empire and
modern times have been others who went by the name of Christian and Christ
warned His Jewish disciples about their own people that those who killed them
would think they were doing God a service in John 16:2. The Roman Catholic
church during the thousand year period between 500AD and 1500AD is credited by
various authors with the murder of other people who went by the name of
Christian to the tune of 5 million to 50 million depending on whom you read in
much disputed histories. This figure includes people who were accused of
witchcraft when their only wrong was to uplift the name of Christ, honor the
Bible in their own language, and trust in Him and not the Roman church for
salvation. You’ll find even today that many of a Bible believing Christian’s
worst enemies are others who call themselves Christians but regard the Bible as
a book of advice more than the living words of God.
While historians like to talk of how brutal the
Aztecs were in sacrificing human beings to their war-like gods, the people of
Europe were executing up to 400 people per day with crowds watching the evil
for entertainment that numbered in the tens of thousands at times. The Aztecs
were a nation of boy scouts compared to Europe at the same time.
Since we know in our understanding of how the
Bible was translated by the King James translators under God’s inspiration (2
Timothy 3:16) which is the wisdom (2 Peter 3:15) and understanding (Job 32:8)
He gives to men, whether in writing originals or copies or translations, He has
ordained for such work we understand how it is to be understood and read. In
this case, when two clauses are separated by a colon the second clause folds
back on the first to clarify meaning. The upright and the just are synonyms
here, the same individuals. The bloodthirsty hate the upright and just but they
seek his, referring to the bloodthirsty’s, soul. Christ has called us to love
our enemies and pray for them, first in talking to his beard wearing, temple
going, Sabbath observing, pork abstaining Jewish disciples in Matthew 5:44;
Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Then, God’s missionary to we Gentiles (Romans
15:16), Paul, says;
Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you:
bless, and curse not.
We are just and upright only by virtue of the Holy Spirit
dwelling inside of us by virtue of the new birth in Christ. We have no
righteousness of our own and left to our own selves are bloodthirsty, wicked
monsters. We are compelled to pray for those lost and unsaved people who would
gladly murder us, even pray for their soul’s deliverance from the lake of fire.
For instance, how many American Christians prayed for Osama Bin Laden’s
deliverance from Satan, do you think? How many prayed for the salvation of the once President Ahmadinejad of Iran?
The bloodthirsty who happen to be those among
the Christian culture in America that would hate us for our stance on what
constitutes a Bible, the independence of our churches, our personal
convictions, or views on separation or whatever the case need our prayers, as
well, and not our hatred and contempt. In fact, all Christians who claim to be
Christians should be praying for each other, particularly if we believe the
other to be wrong, rather than spewing vitriol.
The bloodthirsty and the wicked hate people, the
upright and just pray for them. It’s as simple as that. Which group do you
belong to?
(For confirmation of the use of the colon see
Hunter College Reading/Writing Center: Punctuation and Capitalization, Using
the Colon and Semi-Colon, 1.d. “a clause following a sentence which explains
the sentence.” http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/colon.html)
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