But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness. They’re walking around in the darkness, and they don’t know where they’re going, because the darkness has made them blind.
Then Jesus told them, “You’re going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness catches up with you. Whoever walks in the dark doesn’t know where they’re going.
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and controlled by all kinds of wrong desires and pleasures. We were hostile and envious. Other people hated us, and we hated them.
The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they can’t see the light of the good news that makes Christ’s glory clear. He is the image of God.
“The Lord has blinded their eyes, and he has closed their minds, so they can’t see with their eyes, and they can’t understand with their minds or turn to the Lord—if they could, he would heal them.”
But they still don’t understand; to this day, the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. The veil has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
But anyone who doesn’t take on these qualities is seeing only the present. They’re blind to the past, forgetting all their sins that have been washed away.
If anyone claims to love God but they hate a brother or sister, they’re a liar. If they don’t love their brother or sister, even though they’ve seen them, they can’t claim to love God, when they haven’t seen him.