Ephesians 4: 29-32 NKJV
There are plenty of passages in scripture that tell us how we are supposed to treat one another. In fact, Jesus called the greatest commandment that we love one another. This all seems good, as we should exemplify the love of our Lord. For in our efforts to promote the gospel of our Lord Jesus, we will not draw in too many followers by behaving badly. Christianity has already been brusied by such behaviors through the years. Many non believers actually expect christians to act in a unfriendly way towards others. I guess I cannot place all of the blame on my brethren, for we are all still human often controlled by our own desires. I've often felt that if we, as a society, could return to the days of the early church we would have a grand ol' time loving each other. Gods creation living in harmony. How far we've fallen...again. Despite all of the teachings in scripture on our own personal conduct, we continue to feel the pull of our self serving flesh.
"When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. "But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.' Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbbles himself will be exalted."
Luke 14: 8-11 NKJV
There is nowhere today where the bad behavior and selfish attitudes of the self serving flesh are more evident than in this political season. In the span of a year, we will elect a new president for this great nation of ours. We are blessed to live in a country where the basic right to vote and voice our opinions is protected. Or so it would seem. For the political opinions of some are seen as wrong and misguided. More than that, when those who hold these opinions speak out, they are more often than not ridiculed. The flesh rearing its ugly head once again. We seem to now have a nation of political experts where their opinions are the only ones that matter. I'm sorry, but I must have missed the political science degrees these people have earned! It is one thing to voice your opinion on a matter, but quite another to assume that yours is THE ONLY one that matters. If you think this way, then your ideological brothers Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin would be oh so proud of you. You may even find some support from the Ku Klux Klan. For when we stifle the opinions of others around us, we ourselves engage in the very hateful behaviors of some of historys worst tyrants. Don't get me wrong, a healthy debate of the issues before us is a good thing. Where we go wrong is when we see our views as the be all end all of political thought. We're right, and everyone else is wrong. Communism never had a greater ally than our current political discourse. Let us talk about the issues before us. Let us consider others greater than ourselves. Above all, let us consider the blessed freedoms that we enjoy are shared by those other than ourselves.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
~Abraham Lincoln~
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment