Reading
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35 (NIV)
Reflection
In his book Three Simple Rules, Bishop Rueben Job discussed the three basic guiding principles that John Welsey, the founder of Methodism, had focused on when he described what it meant to live a faithful life. Putting it simply, Job phrased the rules as: 1) Do no harm. 2) Do good. 3) Stay in love with God. In reading Job’s book again recently, I couldn’t help but find it timely, and it brought some sadness to my heart when I noted how much political vitriol characterizes today’s society. There is often much harm that is done. It seems there are many people who forget to attend to the first basic rule—to avoid doing harm to others. Expressing hatred through words can be much more damaging than people realize.
Although Job wrote his short book in 2007, some of his statements seem alarmingly timely for the fever-pitch divisiveness of our society today. In the introduction to that book, Job states, “Most of us never imagined we’d be living in such a divided world. But here we are in a world where divisions are growing deeper nearly every day. But alas, the world of peace and plenty has not happened. Nations are increasingly hostile toward one another; communities are divided around issues of education, development, and the status quo. Religion is divided with each claiming to have a firm grip on the truth. Denominations and congregations are divided over doctrine and what constitutes faithful discipleship and mortal sin. Families are divided by competing agendas, rival priorities, and the daily pressure to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive culture.”
Almost two decades after the printing of Bishop Job’s book, I think we can relate. There are so many opportunities for us to get sucked into the vortex of hate. We hear, see, and witness in all kinds of ways the opposite of good: harm. I wonder, then, what might happen if more and more of us who identify as Christians would truly commit to living according to this first basic principle—to decide to do no harm. Perhaps the most sensible place for a person to start, when embarking on the journey to learn to love, is to start refraining from hate. The journey to learning how to daily practice love begins with this first step: renouncing hatred. When we say no to an attitude of hate, then perhaps we can learn to live our lives in such a way that hateful words and actions are no longer the daily fruit we bear. Love cannot grow from the soil of hate, and the only thing that can vanquish hate is love. When it comes down to it, hateful attitudes, statements, or actions only serve to divide people of faith.Hate doesn’t unify. It separates.
Even as we learn to keep saying no to the temptation to fall into divisive tendencies, we can also allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts from being prone to seeing what we might think is so wrong or misguided in others and turn instead toward seeing them as fellow children of God. Jesus said that the way people will know that we are his disciples is that we love one another. Sometimes, as I spend time in quiet prayer, I’m rather humbled when I consider what messages we believers might be sending to society in general. I pray that our words and actions can grow more and more into the likeness of Christ’s words and actions. Where there are injustices in our society, I pray that we might have the courage and determination to come together and work toward the healing of such social wounds.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we pray that we might grow in our likeness of you. Create in us hearts that choose love and not hate. Where there are systems in our world that treat people in ways that are unjust, prejudicial, and exploitative, help us to be instruments of your peace and love. Amen.
