Doing Unto Others ... Again ...
I did a post similar to this one at some point in the past. But the lesson mentioned here is of such a vital importance to obeying the wishes of Christ, that I felt it was important enough to mention again.
The so called "Golden Rule" tells us that we should "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Most of the time this is taken to say that we should treat other people the same way we want to be treated ourselves. It is simple on it's surface but in practical terms, obedience requires a little more thinking.
This is brought out in Matthew Henry's great commentary. In his comments, he makes this point, which I think hits the nail right on the head.
According to Henry, to do unto others, we need to first put ourselves in their shoes, and then treat then as we would want to be treated if we were them. In other words, when we meet a homeless single mother, we need to put ourselves in her shoes, then treat her as we would want to be treated if WE were a homeless single mother. If we meet a homosexual man, we should imagine ourselves to be a homosexual man and treat him as we would want to be treated if we were him. And so it goes. The list of possibilities is as endless as the number of people you could meet. When we learn to treat people this way, then we will have learned to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
If Christians could see the world and the people around them like this, there would be many more true expressions of Christianity than we commonly see. Then we might see Christians approach the ideal of loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Then our light would shine a bit more brightly in the world.
We live in a world filled with trouble and hate. Sin is everywhere. We Christians tell people Jesus is what is needed and that living under the kingship of Jesus makes life better. If we want people to see the difference Christ makes in a believer's life, few things can do it as well as how people see us treating others. If Christ truly lives in us (Gal. 2:20), then let's let him have full reign to work his will through us. It begins as simply as how you treat the person you meet. Be the presence of Jesus to them ... and let your light shine.
I did a post similar to this one at some point in the past. But the lesson mentioned here is of such a vital importance to obeying the wishes of Christ, that I felt it was important enough to mention again.
The so called "Golden Rule" tells us that we should "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Most of the time this is taken to say that we should treat other people the same way we want to be treated ourselves. It is simple on it's surface but in practical terms, obedience requires a little more thinking.
This is brought out in Matthew Henry's great commentary. In his comments, he makes this point, which I think hits the nail right on the head.
According to Henry, to do unto others, we need to first put ourselves in their shoes, and then treat then as we would want to be treated if we were them. In other words, when we meet a homeless single mother, we need to put ourselves in her shoes, then treat her as we would want to be treated if WE were a homeless single mother. If we meet a homosexual man, we should imagine ourselves to be a homosexual man and treat him as we would want to be treated if we were him. And so it goes. The list of possibilities is as endless as the number of people you could meet. When we learn to treat people this way, then we will have learned to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
If Christians could see the world and the people around them like this, there would be many more true expressions of Christianity than we commonly see. Then we might see Christians approach the ideal of loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Then our light would shine a bit more brightly in the world.
We live in a world filled with trouble and hate. Sin is everywhere. We Christians tell people Jesus is what is needed and that living under the kingship of Jesus makes life better. If we want people to see the difference Christ makes in a believer's life, few things can do it as well as how people see us treating others. If Christ truly lives in us (Gal. 2:20), then let's let him have full reign to work his will through us. It begins as simply as how you treat the person you meet. Be the presence of Jesus to them ... and let your light shine.
posted by John | Saturday, October 27, 2007
1 Comments:
What if you meet an Arminian?
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