Another big Gospel challenge comes on the question of enemies. Even the best of us really want to keep them at a distance. That is the best we manage. Some of us want to actively find ways of disadvantaging, if not actually attacking, them, but the words of Jesus turn us round from such an attitude: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. For Jesus love is the response to everything and everyone. So, I wonder what other Gospel standards it might be worth our while to measure ourselves against? Perhaps one would be our tendency to judge others, and the gospel instruction to refrain from doing so - do not judge others.
That instruction can be aligned to the poignant picture of the chap who goes round with a huge great log stuck in his eye trying to persuade others that they ought to scoop out the tiny specks that are there in their eyes. Is there not a lot here for us? Do we not repeatedly spend our time worrying about what we regard as the misdemeanours of others when we would do well to expend that energy sorting out ourselves?
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