"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," said Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in To Kill A Mockingbird. For true dialogue to occur, we must cut through those stereotypes and genuinely consider the other person's point of view. Perhaps this is par of what Jesus meant when He said, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Christians fail to communicate to others because we ignore basic principles in relationships. When we make condescending judgments, or proclaim lofty words that don't translate into action, or simply speak without first listening, we fail to love. I really doubt God keeps track of how many arguments we win, but God may indeed keep track of how well we love.
God has a large stake in how we love. It was the "new commandment" that Jesus left to His followers. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, stated in his writing that through love we make known an invisible God. "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us" (1 John 4:12). In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul declared that without love all our words and deeds are like irritating noises--the annoying cymbal or clanging of the gong.
So here's a good test of how well we love: Are other people glad to be with us? Somehow Jesus managed to attract the kind of people frowned upon by most religious types, and yet those people liked being with Jesus. The very truth is that when we love people without any restraints we are actually loving God. I wonder why I was never taught this in Bible college? In fact, I wonder why they don't have classes on loving others at seminary seeing that is the one commandment of the New Covenant that Jesus left for His followers and the church. It is also the main ingredient missing in our culture today.
Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Great Britain said, "The supreme religious challenge is to see God's image in one who is not in our image." All to often Christians take the opposite approach. Some demonize opponents, branding them "secular humanists" or "heretics" or something similar, and then retreat into a company of like-minded thinkers. Politics especially encourages adversary relationships - the opposite of love - and Christians are prone to caricature those with whom they disagree as liberal or even immoral, and shun them.
Jesus only had scathing remarks for the religious oppressors of His day. He didn't fight against the political regimes of His day, even though they would eventually condemn Him to the cross. Jesus was cordial with Pilate as He faced the questioning of this secular governor. And think about the Roman centurion who was there at the crucifixion. He had witnessed countless executions and never seen what he saw that day when Jesus loved others by dying on the cross without any reservation.
You see love has the power to win over the stranger, the enemy, the opposition. That is why this command to love others - even our enemies is found in no other religion. Jesus asks that His followers to show love not only to strangers and sinners but also to our outright adversaries. "Love your enemies," He said in the Sermon on the Mount, and "pray for those who persecute you."
Why would Jesus give such an outrageous command? He gave us the answer: ". . . that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 6:45). In Luke's telling of the very same thing he states: ". . . and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:35-36). The more we love, and the more unlikely people we love, the more we resemble God - who loves all people, even the difficult ones.
Martin Luther King Jr. had many opportunities to practice the principle of "Loving Your Enemies." In a sermon by that title, written in jail after he had been arrested during the Montgomery bus boycott, he explained his method:
To our most bitter opponents we say: ". . . Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. . . . Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory."
Now imagine if our country were to follow this advice, which almost seems to be written for the events we find today. Think of how Christians would be thought of if we followed the teachings of Jesus instead of the popular teachings of religious and political leaders of our day. I think this is the reason that the author of Proverbs told us that a soft answer turns away wrath. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who faced the evils of Nazi Germany advised that in response to cultured despisers who stand against the church, "the quiet service of love is the best spiritual care."
Jesus said to feed the poor and to heal the sick. To be totally honest, I have not done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to be angry and lash out, especially if I feel threatened or if my ego feels threatened. Jesus did not mix His spirituality with politics. I grew up in the middle of Christian circles that are extremely politically opinionated. And to be totally honest, it got in the way of the central message of Christ. If I am honest, I have to admit that was and is wrong, and I know that there are many who will not listen to the words of Christ because of people like me, who carry our own agendas into the conversations rather than just relaying the message that Christ wanted to get across.
We Christians do not have all the answers. We stumble along, believing that an invisible God really does exist, that there is more to life than the mere struggles of the day, that despite all appearances the universe is a product of God's personal love. Along the way we muddle ethical issues and miss the priorities of the kingdom of God. The approach of admitting our errors, besides being true to a gospel of grace, is most effective at expressing who we are. Propaganda turns people off; humbly admitting mistakes disarms. Far from claiming to have it all together, Christians should regularly confess that we do not. True followers of Jesus distinguish themselves primarily by admitting failure and the need for help.
I don't know about you, but every day I watch the news and worry about the world in which my kids and grandkids are inheriting. It is full of hate and though I want to blame the media, the liberal left, the conservative right, President Trump, candidate Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, ANTIFA, Black Lives Matters, protestors, Congress, and whoever else I can think of, the truth is that as a Christ-follower, I have not loved others -the strangers, those that oppose the truth, my enemies - the way Jesus commanded me. I have heard both political parties say that this election is the most important election ever, but the truth is the most important vote you and I will face is whether we will love one another as Christ commanded.
Comments
Post a Comment