LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

My first ministry in the United States was as Dean of Christian Life (Chaplain) at Gordon College, Wenham Massachusetts from 1971 to 1976. Gordon was founded by A.J. Gordon in 1889 as a missionary training institute. It developed into a Christian liberal arts college with 1,600 students today and a divinity school which became Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. I had the privilege of serving under President Harold J. Ockenga, former pastor of historic Park Street Church on Boston Common.

In Stillpoint, the Fall 2020 college magazine there is a helpful article entitled Peace in Politics: How To Have Fruitful Dialogue Across Party Lines by Reid Swetland, Mike Jacobs and Sarah Dawn Petrin. They make six points.

1. Don’t conflate your political views with who you are. We can identify too much with our political views and find ourselves asking whether there is something wrong with me or with them. A different opinion can feel like a personal threat.
2. Remember, people matter more than politics. Relationships matter more than winning the argument. Are you being kind? Can you appreciate the other person’s point of view, recognizing the values they are trying to communicate?
3. Move beyond stereotypes and caricatures to see real people. Don’t presume to know what others believe and what they think.
4. Find the story underpinning a person’s political viewpoint. Everyone has a life experience that has influenced them. Ask ‘how did you come to believe that’? Appreciate their story.
5. Before you initiate, check your motivation. Is it out of frustration or are you looking for validation? Do you want consensus or do you need to blow off steam?
6. Be gracious to others and realize some of your own legalistic tendencies. Our emotions can produce a critical attitude. Focus instead on God’s grace and you will not be threatened by different political views.

Clare Ansberry in the Wall Street Journal today writes a story on the next door neighbors, the Mitchells and Gates, in suburban Pittsburgh, who support opposing parties and posted signs on their front lawns for Trump and Biden. They also posted homemade signs which read: “We (Heart) Them with an arrow pointing to the other house. In the middle of each heart are the words “One Nation.” They wanted to send a message that people on the opposite ends of the political spectrum can actually like one another and be civil. The neighbors have been friends for 14 years and each couple have three children of roughly the same ages and walk to school together. Their lives are intertwined and they call each other family. They don’t argue. They don’t label each other. They listen to each other’s perspective, look for common ground and recognize that reasonable and good people can reach different conclusions.

Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon on August 9, 1857 on Love Your Neighbor (Matt.19:19). We are to love our neighbor even if he has a different religion, or he is in a competing business, or if he has offended you by his sin, or wronged by him. We are not to neglect them when they are in need and be ready to serve them whether they are above us or below us or come from a different background from us. We are to treat others kindly and do good to them. Be generous with them when the occasion comes an alleviate any sorrow or misery when you find it. Christ loved us before we loved him. He loved us when there was nothing good in us. He loved us though we insulted him, despised and rebelled against him. We should love as our Savior and Master loved us.

“In thinking of this text yesterday, my eyes ran with tears at the recollection of many a hard thing I had spoken in unwary moments. I thought of many an opportunity of loving my neighbor that I had slighted and I labored to confess the sin… Precious is he that can forgive my want of charity, and pardon my want of kindness – can forgive my roughness and my rudeness and put away all my harsh speaking, my bigotry and unkindness, and can through his all atoning sacrifice give me a seat in heaven notwithstanding all my sins.”

There are many nations in the world where there are ethnic and religious divisions which destroy political and civil society. Let us rise above our differences by the spirit of Christ and instead love our neighbor as ourselves.