A Christian's Guide to Social Conflicts
Over the last year or two, my wife and I have been putting some focus on what it is to assume the best in things first and foremost, particularly people because people are dynamic.
Assuming the best does a few things:
It paints the person first as an ally, or a potential one.
It puts the burden of proof of who they are, completely onto them. They can participate with you, or they won't.
It places the binary decision of like/dislike at the end when variables and truths have been expressed thoughtfully... which is when that decision should always be made.
Suffice to say that over the last few years, watching the general back and forth on social media has severely diluted the kind of hope I had where thoughtfulness would have a bigger voice. Rather than an exchange of ideas, the goal has become about how one can express an idea via short zingers. Combative rather than constructive, clever rather than kind, dismissive rather than profound.
Where I thought brevity (not here obviously) would be a learned skill to communicate ideas (since those are usually thoughtful), it also became an unforeseen consequence by those who are terrible at it.
Now, what does this have to do with the Gospel? Aside from modern evangelicalism’s failure to live it?
Matthew 5:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Speaking of tax collectors, when Jesus found Zaccheus, He basically invited Himself over to his house for dinner. Jesus assumed the best, by placing the value of time onto Zaccheus by sharing a meal with him. In the course of the event, Zaccheus began to repay the people he had taken advantage of. Zaccheus started to live a life of repentance. The people had every reason to criticize Jesus for associating with him, and some did, but what do you or me accomplish by shunning those who very clearly live with values that are diametrically opposed to us? What do we accomplish by focusing on the disqualifications of sin, rather than the qualifications of the redeemed?
As Christians, we have to be open to the hard conversations. We cannot continue to play the persecution card every time we are challenged. We also have to remember something else, and that is we are not first and foremost, Christians. We are first and foremost, Sinners. We credit Paul for being an amazing believer, but what did he think of himself?
A chief among sinners.
