John 15:22-25 – If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father also. If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

Jesus came to earth and exposed sin in the heart of mankind. He did it two ways. He told us that it was something that started in the heart, and He showed us by example how a perfect man should live.

Jesus taught that if you thought about it, you did it in your heart. It is the heart that needs correcting. It’s so easy for us to focus on the “big” external crimes such as murder, and adultery without paying attention to the hatred, slander, and covetousness of the heart. Jesus leveled the playing field. Everyone was guilty in God’s eyes, and, everyone had hope in His name. He then went on to show us how a man can live in complete obedience to the Father.

Needless to say, we didn’t like it. It isn’t fun to learn from a perfect person how evil you are. So what do we do? Apply a little hatred, of course. Obviously, God, the Father takes this into account. It is this hatred that really will get people in trouble in the end. Jesus paid the price for our sin, but, if we reject Him, there is no protection. That hatred of Jesus will someday come back to haunt those who refused to repent of it.

So the real hate crime is the one committed against Jesus and the Father. Jesus has forgiven us of our hate crimes by the death He died as punishment in our place. Hatred is gone for us, we can now love each other like we were intended to, and not be ashamed to come into the light and be seen for what we really are.