The Bible tells us that it is ‘perfect love’ which must, in the very nature of the case, expel from the heart all hatred and every evil contrary contrary to love, just as you must first empty a cup of all oil that may be in it before you can fill it with water.
Envy first brings depression: “My life isn’t as good as yours.” Then comes offense: “Why should you have what I don’t have?” – which degrades into hatred.
Regardless of why you have made bitterness and hatred your best friends, if you carry them around long enough, they will eventually eat you from the inside out.
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed through intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died.