As we continue our journey toward a religion that promotes equality, peace, love and acceptance and examine parts of the bible with regard to what God would, or would not have said, this blog will focus on one of the beautiful parts of the bible. Again, this is in the spirit of “have we misrepresented God” in thinking the “entire” bible is the inspired word of God, as opposed to “some” of it being what men have written.
Our world could use a big dose of this right now.
Romans 12:15-18
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
What great words these are!
Make it about other people
Be happy with people who have reason to be happy and be sad with people who have reason to be sad. Too often today we can find people being jealous for people who have reason to be happy and happy when certain people have had something bad happen. In a world of peace, we would not be jealous of someone else’s success, or happy for someone else’s misfortune because that is all about us and is very selfish. Selfishness does not promote harmony and peace and may be one of the biggest issues we see in our world today.
Live in harmony with each other??
Every time we look around today we see disharmony in many situations. It seems to be much easier to find something wrong with someone than it is to find something right. To live in harmony requires effort. We must try and understand each other. But instead, we end up judging each other instead. It is much easier to judge. We can judge in split second timing from an event that happens in a snap-shot in time. Understanding each other requires much more time and effort. We must ask questions and seek information to truly see where someone else is coming from or what is going on in their life. Maybe this is why we see such a lack of harmony in the world today. We are simply lazy, or so stuck in our thoughts and beliefs that we don’t want to put forth the effort to understand someone that is different than we are. We need to think about this and really try to put these words into practice.
Do not be proud and do not be conceited.
Its like we see the exact opposite of this today. People saying, “look at me”, or “look what I’ve done”, and people thinking they are better than someone else. This mindset is at the very core of division and discord. Until we can get it through our heads that no one is better than anyone else and we are all in this together, we will not find true harmony and peace. “All in this together” means that if one of is mistreated, we are all mistreated. If one of us is thought of as less than, we are all less than. We must all think of ourselves as being equal and no one is more important than anyone else.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Wow! More of the theme in our world today is, “I’ll pay you back ten times for what you did to me.” We live in a, “I’ll get revenge”, and a, “I’ll get even” society if there ever was one. The thought of not getting even sometimes never occurs to us, much less the thought of repaying evil with understanding. The thing we know about history is that repaying with evil or revenge is a never-ending story. It is always someone else’s turn to get even. It takes much more strength to repay evil with understanding. What does this mean? It means communicating with the person who wronged you. This requires much more time and effort, but you may find it was based on a misunderstanding to begin with, or that addressing it allowed for a line of communication that could possibly stop the wrong from happening again.
Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
What great words to put into practice. Too often we do what is right in our own eyes, or when someone else is watching that we want to impress. I heard a good saying one time which went like this, “character is doing the right thing when no one is watching.” No one really knows the “true us” except the people who live with us. We really don’t even want them to know the true us, but since we live with them, we can’t keep the act up for that long, and the true us bleeds out anyway. Can you imagine what the world would be like if we always made it a point to do what is right for everyone concerned, and not just for us? Maybe a world with harmony and peace!
As far as it depends on you…..
Then the last part of the verses has the kicker. As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Not just some of the people…. everyone. Are you a peacemaker, or are you a pot stirrer? Peacemakers don’t stir up problems, or keep them going, they try to resolve them. Peacemakers don’t hold grudges, they try to resolve them. Peacemakers don’t do things to divide people, they do things to bring people together. Peacemakers don’t make people feel bad about themselves, they make people feel supported and offer solutions. Peacemakers don’t look for reasons to hate, they find reasons to love. Peacemakers don’t pick sides, they bring sides together.
Inspired word of God
Now these words could be the inspired word of God. These are words that are true for all times and give a message that would be true for everyone. These words are not contradictory or confusing, but instead bring clarity and a solution for the division and hate we see in our world today.
Equality, peace, love and acceptance
Again, my intent is not to destroy anyone’s belief system, but perhaps to strengthen it. Over time, we have turned the bible into God. When you can open your mind and look at the entirety of what the bible says, it has some beautiful things to say, which undoubtedly would have come from God, but it also has some not so beautiful things to say, which undoubtedly would not have come from God. The reason this is so important is because some people use the bible for superiority, exclusion, condemnation and judgement, which is a direct contradiction to what God would want. When we finish this journey, my hope is that it will allow for more equality, peace, love and acceptance, for our world.
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