Risking Kindness

Read Proverbs 4

Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12

Jesus certainly had a way of boiling things down to the basics. He was surrounded with people who were experts at finding loopholes and exceptions in the law. But they were skilled at the art of overlooking the obvious, as Jesus pointed out a number of times. His description of people straining out gnats while swallowing camels (Matthew 23:23-24) may strike us as hilarious until we gag on the truth that he is talking about people like us.

The mouthful of reality in Jesus’ joke points out our tendency to see ourselves as the exception. We want others to treat us as we deserve to be treated, but we balk at treating them the same way. We know what we want others to do for us, but doing the same for them is too much trouble. They might not reciprocate. The principle in this proverb, of course, is the risk involved in following Jesus. Common sense might tell us to see how others treat us so we will then know how to treat them. Jesus rejects that approach. He tells those who want to be his disciples that they must actively pursue treating people as they themselves want to be treated.

A WORD FOR TODAY

What goes around does come around.

Today, Lord, remind me not to wait until others do for me; help me do for them first.