Christ Tendencies.

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. 

Jesus said…

How we would like to be treated by others is how we should treat others.

Jesus did not say…

If someone wrongs you make sure you wrong them in return, or at the very least snub them and no longer like them.

We have a mindset that tells us to dislike those who treat us in ways we don't want them to. And that mindset will often refuse to allow us to even entertain the idea of doing good towards someone we dislike, someone who has wronged us. And if we do allow ourselves to be nice to the one who wronged us, often we do so with the intention of getting revenge upon them at a later date and they'll never see it coming. Or, we might not be seeking revenge but we tell ourselves we'll be the better person and treat them nicely- giving ourselves a huge pat on the back and maybe a quick shoulder squeeze to congratulate ourselves on being such a superior, better human being than the one who wronged us. We place ourselves up on a pedestal not realizing it's made of Satan's pride.

Truthfully. We have all wronged others in one way or another. We all give others reasons to dislike us. I'm not saying all others or all the time, but not a single one of us has gone through life without upsetting someone. We've made friends and enemies. Some people make enemies simply by the way they look, or the way their personality rubs someone the wrong way. Through no extenuating fault of their own they instantly raise the hackles of someone else.

Christ would have us not look at all upon how others treat us- whether they like us or they don't. Christ would have us only focus on how we are treating others.

How do you treat other people?

Right now with the pandemic underway it's easy for us to snub others because we are being ordered by our government to keep away from people. Did you know you can still smile at someone else when you are six feet away from them? You can imagine others around you have the cooties and are crawling with microscopic bugs and still smile and treat them with respect.

Setting aside the newly accepted pandemic snub, how do you normally treat others?  Do you ALWAYS treat them like you would want them to treat you- with kindness and respect?  If you don't I'm sure you could give me a list of many reasons why they don't deserve your kindness and respect- they cut you off in traffic, they swore at you, the ignored you as you waited to be served by them, they gave you a dirty look, they called you a name, they laughed at you, they flirted with your husband/wife, they were impatient with you.  We expect to be treated in certain ways while dealing with the people around us and when they fall short of our expectations we feel slighted, justifiably so. Yet, Christ doesn't want us to feel slighted, to feel hurt, to feel offended, He wants us to react contrary to what seems natural to us. He wants us to love as He loves.

If we are being completely honest with ourselves then we'd comprehend that the perfect, only begotten Son of God, more than any other human being who ever lived had the right to feel offended by so many who treated Him wrongly. He had the right to condemn those who had just put the nails in his hands, but instead He said this…

Luk_23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

And even if those soldiers had jumped up and yelled that they knew exactly what they were doing, Jesus knew that their eyes had been blinded by the evil one's influence, and they really did not comprehend what they had done.  Forgive them.

Forgive them.

Forgive them.

Forgive.

We do not forgive those who have nailed our hands to our perceived crosses. We take their actions and file them away neatly in a mental drawer to be remembered and fawned over at our will. We go through the stack and repeat offenders have a pile of noted offenses towards us. We clump groups together, and all those idiotic other drivers deserve my wrath as if they were all those who ever drove offensively around me. The server deserves the scorn of all those other servers through my life that have slighted me in anyway. We wear our cloaks of derision proudly, when we should feel shame to even possess such a cloak.

Forgive them.

How do you want Jesus to forgive you?  Do you want Him to mouth the words and yet treat you as being unforgiven? Do you want Him to say He forgives you but will never ever stop feeling the pain of how you treated Him?  Jesus' blood was spilled to cover our sins, blotting them out completely and one day blotting them out so that we never ever committed them- they are that gone. We need to strive in our very imperfect way to forgive as we want to be forgiven. We most certainly do not want to be forgiven in such a way our sins are forever held in front of us taunting us even silently, and some of the loudest taunts can be silent ones while screaming at us inside. It can be exhausting in so many ways to have our sins surround us. We need the peace that only Christ can give us with His assurance to forgive us, to cleanse us, to renew us, to make us free indeed. We need to believe in Christ's love, in His sacrifice, and the power of His blood. We don't deserve it, just as we may believe others don't deserve such forgiveness from us, but we are offered Christ's love and all that means just the same- undeservedly.

Let us treat others as we want to be treated no matter how often they knock us down- mentally, emotionally, and even physically (though I'm no advocate of staying in abusive life threatening relationships). Let us love as Christ loves. Let us forgive as we would be forgiven. Let us let the Holy Spirit live in us to do the work of God through us. When our natural tendency is to be hurt, spiteful, any number of seemingly justified ways, let us seek Christ's tendencies, not our own. May we let Christ live in us, our hope!

All by the grace and love of our Savior, through His will now and forever! Amen!!!!!!!