How to Love Your Neighbor as You Love Yourself (Part 1)
By Jiang Nan, South Korea
The Lord Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another” (John 13:34–35). “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). The Lord Jesus requires of us that we get along well with others and that we love one another. But because we each have a different family background, different life habits, different personalities, ages and life experiences, it thus becomes unavoidable that prejudices and misunderstandings will arise in our dealings with our brothers and sisters, so much so that conflict and friction can occur between us. We then become unable to follow the Lord’s requirement that we get along well with others, and both parties are harmed. This can cause us all a lot of distress: Why can’t we keep the Lord’s teachings? What exactly are we supposed to do to get along well with others? Below, I will fellowship on three principles with you all; if we can all put these principles into practice, then getting along well with others will be easy to achieve.
1. Do not go by your feelings or personal preferences in your dealings with others, but treat everyone fairly
We can meet many brothers and sisters in our church, and no one is perfect—we each have our own faults. When we come across all kinds of different people, most of the time we go by our own feelings and personal preferences in the way we treat them. For example, some people are good at singing and dancing, they may be talented in various ways and have many special skills, and so we will want to connect with them, for they can bring us up to full strength and help us. Some people, however, may have no special skills, and they may have some shortcomings and faults, or they may have some physical disorder, and we never want to connect with people like this, but instead will disparage them and belittle them because of their problems. In fact, whenever someone like this is even mentioned, the first thing we think about is their disorder and, in severe cases, we can even exclude and shun them. Furthermore, in our dealings with our brothers and sisters, we always look up to and idolize those who have served the Lord for many years and those in all levels of leadership in the church. We like to connect with these people because we believe they are knowledgeable about the Bible and that they are the ones who most love the Lord. Besides these people, we enjoy interacting and connecting with those who have the same personalities, interests and life habits as us. We distance ourselves from those whose personalities, interests and life habits differ from ours, however, and we are unable to treat them fairly. In life, too much of the time we go by our own feelings and preferences in our treatment of other people. By interacting with people in this way, we not only end up constraining and harming them, but we cause our relationships with them to become stressful, and we then become incapable of getting along well with them.
God says, “A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another” (John 13:34–35). “And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). “[W]ith regard to how to treat others, what are the principles behind how you treat those with status and those without, as well as ordinary brothers and sisters and various levels of leaders and workers? You cannot treat your brothers and sisters in the same way as the unbelievers treat people; you must be fair and reasonable. You cannot be close to this one, but not that one; nor should you form cliques or gang up. You cannot bully people because you have taken a dislike to them, or fawn over those who are formidable. This is what is meant by principles. You must be principled in the way you deal with other people; you must treat them all fairly. … How do you treat them fairly? Everyone has minor faults and shortcomings, as well as certain idiosyncrasies; people all possess self-righteousness, weakness, and areas in which they are lacking. You should help them with a loving heart, be tolerant and forbearing, and not be too harsh or make a fuss over every tiny detail. … How does God treat each and every person? Some people are of immature stature, or are young, or have believed in God for only a short time. God might see these people as being neither bad nor malicious by nature and in essence; it is simply that they are somewhat ignorant or lacking in caliber, or that they have been polluted too much by society. They have not entered into the reality of the truth, so it is difficult for them to keep from doing some foolish things or committing some ignorant acts. However, from God’s perspective, such matters are not important; He looks only at these people’s hearts. If they are resolved to enter into the reality of the truth, if they are headed in the right direction, and this is their objective, then God is watching them, waiting for them, and giving them time and opportunities that allow them to enter. It is not the case that God knocks them down with one blow, nor is it that He grabs hold of a transgression they once committed and refuses to let go; He has never treated people like this” (“To Gain the Truth, You Must Learn From the People, Matters, and Things Around You”).
We can see from God’s words that He does not treat people based on their personalities, appearances or calibers, nor does He treat people based on how high or low their position and status happen to be. As long as someone loves the truth and pursues the truth, then God will enlighten and guide them, and He will lead them to understand His will. As for those who sin, as long as they make sincere repentance and refrain from committing sin again, then God will forgive them. Take the Lord Jesus’ disciples, for example. Some were fishermen and one was a tax collector, but although they were of lowly status, they still yearned for the truth and, when they heard the Lord call to them, they were able to immediately give it all up to follow Him. This gladdened the Lord, the Lord Jesus spared no trouble in fellowshiping the truth to them and He methodically told them many parables to enable them to understand His will. To the sinners, such as the promiscuous woman and the chief tax collector Zacchaeus, the Lord Jesus saw that they were willing to repent and so He forgave them their sins, and He did not treat them according to the sins they had committed. From the attitude God takes in His treatment of people, we can see that He treats people in a principled way, whereas we always go by our own feelings and treat people based on our individual preferences, and this is at odds with the will and the requirements of God. God has set an example for us to follow and He has shown us the principles for how to treat other people. In our dealings with other people, we cannot go by our own preferences, and we cannot treat people based on whether they are good to us or not, or on whether we like them or not, or on their background. Instead, we should relinquish our feelings and our personal preferences, and treat every single person according to the words of God and the truth. As long as a brother or sister sincerely believes in God and loves the truth, then no matter whether their personality or temperament meshes with our own or not, or whether they have status and power or not, or what mistakes they may have made in the past, we should always treat every person fairly. We should not discriminate, but should be loving, tolerant and understanding, for only then will we be able to get along well with others.
Source From: A Guidebook for Faith
Write a comment