RESPECTING OUR ENEMIES
But I would remind you that even the archangel Michael when he was contending with the devil in the dispute over the body of Moses did not dare to condemn him with mockery. He simply said, the Lord rebuke you! Jude 9, Phillips.
It would be hard to imagine a stranger match. The liberal Democratic senator Ted Kennedy was speaking in the church of the conservative Republican minister Jerry Falwell. One could have expected fighting words from both directions. Instead, Senator Keennedy said, "When speaking of people who disagree with us, we must still count them as men of integrity."
This sentiment recognizes that our common humanity extends beyond our political persuasions. It means that when we look at another person we do not immediately recognize a foreigner, a smoker, a criminal, a homosexual, or even an enremy. It means that our very first impression is of a fellow human being struggling against the weights of heredity and circumstance just as we are. We see one who both longs for and deserves to be treated as a person of integrity.
Few drives of the human heart are more raging than that of proving ourselves right. We quickly bruise the feelings and images of others in our rush to stand on the top of the heap, fearing nothing more than that others should find us wrong. But when we stand on the tops of our little self-made mountains, we are stunned to recognize that all the people we've injured on the way up really don't care if we're right!
People who disagree with us are seen as threatening; rather than reexamine our own positions or simply state our position in contrast to another, we find a need to view our opponents as enemies. Rather than face our insecurities, we act as though another has chosen to be stubborn, deceived, or fraudulent.
I know of no person who has set out to be a failure. I do know a lot of people who are hurting, and I wonder why I have so often hurt them further in the name of righteousness. There is still a major gap between the way we so often treat our enemies and the way God treats His. One difference, of course, is that God doesn't need to trounce His opponents in order to prove that He is right. In fact, were He to do so, that very spirit of retaliation and vengeance would be evidence of His weakness, His error. It would prove Him wrong.
But God has great confidence in the winsome power of truth. Given the right setting, truth will shine. But disrespect toward another will always cloud that setting, making it harder for people to discern truth.
But I would remind you that even the archangel Michael when he was contending with the devil in the dispute over the body of Moses did not dare to condemn him with mockery. He simply said, the Lord rebuke you! Jude 9, Phillips.
It would be hard to imagine a stranger match. The liberal Democratic senator Ted Kennedy was speaking in the church of the conservative Republican minister Jerry Falwell. One could have expected fighting words from both directions. Instead, Senator Keennedy said, "When speaking of people who disagree with us, we must still count them as men of integrity."
This sentiment recognizes that our common humanity extends beyond our political persuasions. It means that when we look at another person we do not immediately recognize a foreigner, a smoker, a criminal, a homosexual, or even an enremy. It means that our very first impression is of a fellow human being struggling against the weights of heredity and circumstance just as we are. We see one who both longs for and deserves to be treated as a person of integrity.
Few drives of the human heart are more raging than that of proving ourselves right. We quickly bruise the feelings and images of others in our rush to stand on the top of the heap, fearing nothing more than that others should find us wrong. But when we stand on the tops of our little self-made mountains, we are stunned to recognize that all the people we've injured on the way up really don't care if we're right!
People who disagree with us are seen as threatening; rather than reexamine our own positions or simply state our position in contrast to another, we find a need to view our opponents as enemies. Rather than face our insecurities, we act as though another has chosen to be stubborn, deceived, or fraudulent.
I know of no person who has set out to be a failure. I do know a lot of people who are hurting, and I wonder why I have so often hurt them further in the name of righteousness. There is still a major gap between the way we so often treat our enemies and the way God treats His. One difference, of course, is that God doesn't need to trounce His opponents in order to prove that He is right. In fact, were He to do so, that very spirit of retaliation and vengeance would be evidence of His weakness, His error. It would prove Him wrong.
But God has great confidence in the winsome power of truth. Given the right setting, truth will shine. But disrespect toward another will always cloud that setting, making it harder for people to discern truth.
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