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| “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” |
| —Matthew 7:12a |
Living a balanced life presents quite a challenge to most of us. It’s easy to find ourselves obsessing in one direction or another. We see this in every area of life. On the one hand we want to be treated quite fairly by others. On the other hand most of us want any available advantage to flow in our direction.
Our natural bent is to expect kindness without being willing to first extend kindness. So, our expectation becomes unbalanced. In fact, the very nature of the culture that has overtaken the United States of America has bred a selfish, dissatisfied, and disaffected attitude in most people.
To our peril, we judge each other by the color of our skin, by the political party we support, by the clothes we wear, by the television programs we watch, by the patterns of our speech, by the kind of food we prefer, by our like or dislike of firearms, and onward to infinity. Every distinction in our individual lives becomes a point of contention with the people around us.
But, this way of selfishly living our lives is destructive to our very existence. Jesus gave wise instructions to His disciples when He told them in Matthew 7:9-12:
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
This passage is part of the Scripture that Bible students call the “Sermon on the Mount.” This sermon is found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. It offers some of the most comprehensive, yet most difficult, teachings of our Savior and Lord.
We frankly do not want to show kindness to many people in our lives. Some people annoy us. Others treat us badly. Still others voice beliefs that we find offensive, or attitudes with which we do not agree. We find ourselves emphasizing our differences, rather than celebrating the ways we are the same.
Maintaining a balance in our lives is very difficult. But, it’s possible if we surrender our selfish wills to God’s perfect will.
Relying on the help from the Holy Spirit, we can learn how to bring our lives into balance. We can reject the patterns of our current culture. We can treat others with kindness and with a generosity of spirit. We can greet the cruelty of this world with a godly spirit of kindness that shows concern and compassion without surrendering or hiding the truth.
Let us determine to live our lives in a way that pushes back against our destructive culture. Let us seek God’s help this day, so that we may follow Jesus' teaching and bring honor to His precious and holy name.
Based on a blog originally posted on Monday, November 16, 2015
