Most of us, as we were growing up, became familiar with the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. When Jesus speaks those words, as recorded in Matthew 7:12, he follows them up by saying that “this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, if we would simply hold to that one simple idea, our behavior towards others would be consistent with God’s overall desire for how we should relate to others. Jesus reinforces this notion when he responds to a question about the greatest commandment by saying that the first is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself, and that all the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matt 22:37-40). One would hope, therefore, that we would have sufficient clarity from these verses to understand how it is that we should behave towards one another.
Unfortunately, as we allow our general culture to become increasingly disrespectful and confrontational, our concept of the type of behavior that we would either tolerate or expect towards ourselves from others is skewing the premise behind these (once) clear ideas. After all, if we are expecting someone to be rude or hostile towards us and we consider that to be acceptable behavior, then by that same standard, we are okay with being rude or hostile towards them. You wouldn’t think that we would have needed added context to these teachings from Jesus to keep them from being misconstrued, but there is another quote from the Bible that perhaps needs to be considered as well.
In Romans Chapter 12, the Apostle Paul writes “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” With this one passage, Paul removes any confusion about how we are expected to act. First, the “do unto others” or “love your neighbor” component should correspond to the idea of blessing people. Simply put, our interactions with others should leave them feeling blessed. Paul’s second point is the more difficult of the points, however. Our behavior towards others – this call to love them and bless them – is irrespective of how they are treating us. If we are being insulted or persecuted, we are still called to respond with love, even if the entire world thinks that it would be okay to retaliate with cursing. Jesus underlines this point when he proclaims “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” (Luke 6:32)
If you feel, as I do, that our culture has gotten far too comfortable with being rude and confrontational, then can I encourage you to consider a change in your mindset? Take Paul’s words to heart, and bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. And bless them audibly and sincerely, so that they will leave that encounter knowing that you were not going to fight with them. They will likely be confused, and they may still want to be contentious, because they are expecting to have you do to them as they have done to you. However, if you are willing to bless instead of curse, even as they are cursing, they may finally have a glimpse of a better way – the way it was meant to be.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron