Matthew 7:1, Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3
Some of us grew up in small rural communities, perhaps in a little old mining town in the Midwest. We knew our neighbors. Every summer evening, we would go out for a walk and folks would greet us from their front porch swings. Mother would send over one of us kids to get a cup of sugar from next door. Let’s face it. Pretty much everyone in our town looked like us, went to church on Sunday, and generally had the same views about life and politics.
What does it mean to love our neighbors when they are not like us? When they have different backgrounds, different traditions, different ways of looking at life and definitely different religious and political views? How do we radically love those neighbors? How do we approach them with openness and responsiveness?
Ponder the three passages above. The first is about judgmentalism. The second is about putting up with each other (“bearing”). The third is about valuing others higher than ourselves.
- Think about the call to embrace one another as human beings, not leading with caution and wariness but with an open heart and outstretched hand. Shouldn’t we as the redeemed people of God, lead the way in this?
- And as we leave this devotional section, one final question: What might it mean for the church to be as Isaiah 56:7 says, “a house of prayer for all nations”?
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