I have found that my personal context heavily influences my ability to understand certain biblical concepts and commands. I live in a rather tightly knit community where we tend to look out for each other, and where our disagreements don’t typically lead to violence, so my daily experiences within this context cause me to think more towards peaceful living, free of strife and oppression. Therefore, it seems relatively easy to grasp the idea of loving my neighbors as myself (because most of my neighbors are fantastic) or blessing those who persecute you (because our persecution is limited to having people strongly disagree with us).
This past Sunday, our church welcomed a fellow pastor from Rwanda to come and deliver a sermon. His experience in Rwanda could not be more different from our experience here, as he was driven out of his native country at the age of two and then spent the next 30+ years of his life living in a refugee camp during the civil wars that plagued his nation. The term “genocide” has been in the news quite a bit lately, but Rwanda is a place where it was lived out, and my fellow pastor lost many of his family members to the violence that pitted tribe against tribe in nearly unfathomable evil. During those times, the next-door neighbor may well have been the person who entered your home and slaughtered your loved ones.
This man, my brother in Christ, gave us a much deeper understanding of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself and to bless those who persecute you. He has started multiple churches in his homeland and built schools that serve all who will come to them. In the process, he is fully aware that some of the people who he is now loving through his actions were personally and intimately involved in the deaths of his family members. What he is doing seems impossible – this idea that we can truly love our neighbors no matter what they have done to us – yet his life demonstrates that not only is it possible, but it is the best way to make a difference in the presence of evil.
Ultimately, what his testimony revealed to us is that, absent the type of violence and persecution that other places in the world experience, we can be led to believe that our own strength and moral conviction is sufficient to let us love our neighbors as God has commanded us and to bless those who persecute us. For those like my fellow pastor who know the depths of hatred and persecution, they know that no amount of personal strength and moral conviction can sustain a heart of love towards those who have literally killed your loved ones. You can’t “fake it till you make it” or force yourself to be neighborly. Because of their lived experiences, they know that only the Holy Spirit can bring about the changes in our hearts that make such a love possible.
Even within the peaceful shores of a beautiful community like ours, we can’t truly love our neighbors as the Bible calls us to without the Holy Spirit guiding our hearts. Testimonies like that of my brother from Rwanda bring that truth home, and while I am sorry that his life has been filled with tragedy, his testimony provides power and clarity to those of us living in comfort. Therefore, may his suffering and testimony serve as an inspiration for you to seek out the only source of love that is deep enough to withstand whatever evils this world will throw at you. Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron