The principle of nonretaliation for personal injury permeates the entire New Testament. It provides guidance when life brings us up against those who care nothing for us and are in fact opposed to all that we stand for. Ask that they might enjoy the blessings of God! Love inevitably desires the best for other people regardless of who they may be. The old nature says, “Curse them”; God says, “Ask me to bless them.”
God’s will is that his children become a family where the joys of one become the joys of all and the pain of one is gladly shared by all the others. The Christian experience is not one person against the world but one great family living out together the mandate to care for one another. So rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and weep with those who are weeping (v. 15). The elder brother in the account of the prodigal son provides an example of the failure to join in rejoicing (Luke 15:25–32). On the other hand, the Gospels record that upon meeting Mary following the death of her brother, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). …show more content…
The tendency to regard oneself as worthy of preferential treatment is universal in scope. The entire range of personal conflict, which reaches all the way from minor squabbles to international wars, reflects the misguided idea that we are better than they or that they have done something against us. So Paul counseled us to “live in harmony with one another” (v. 16). This unity is less the result of accommodation to the other person’s point of view than it is the result of arriving at a mutual understanding of God’s way of thinking. Like spokes in a wheel that converge at the hub, the closer we are to God the closer we come to one another. Paul admonished his readers not to be proud since it is pride more than anything else that destroys the harmony of the
God’s will is that his children become a family where the joys of one become the joys of all and the pain of one is gladly shared by all the others. The Christian experience is not one person against the world but one great family living out together the mandate to care for one another. So rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and weep with those who are weeping (v. 15). The elder brother in the account of the prodigal son provides an example of the failure to join in rejoicing (Luke 15:25–32). On the other hand, the Gospels record that upon meeting Mary following the death of her brother, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). …show more content…
The tendency to regard oneself as worthy of preferential treatment is universal in scope. The entire range of personal conflict, which reaches all the way from minor squabbles to international wars, reflects the misguided idea that we are better than they or that they have done something against us. So Paul counseled us to “live in harmony with one another” (v. 16). This unity is less the result of accommodation to the other person’s point of view than it is the result of arriving at a mutual understanding of God’s way of thinking. Like spokes in a wheel that converge at the hub, the closer we are to God the closer we come to one another. Paul admonished his readers not to be proud since it is pride more than anything else that destroys the harmony of the