Food for Thought –

Concerning How We Treat Others

     God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses for the people of Israel. Most of them dealt with how people were to treat each other. From the respect that children were to show to their parents, to the sanctity of human life and the marriage covenant, and how we are to treat that which belongs to other people - these are people treating people commands. God has been concerned about how people treat each other from the beginning.

     The "Golden Rule" is a Biblical principle. And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way. These are the words of Jesus as recorded in Luke 6:31 (New American Standard). It sums up the way we are to treat each other. Most people admit that we don't treat ourselves badly. We generally show great respect for ourselves and treat ourselves as best we can. The apostle Paul, in speaking about how a husband is to treat his wife, used a man's concern for his own welfare as an example: So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. (Ephesians 5:28,29)

     Many of the instructions in the Bible address how we are to treat each other. Consider this brief passage from the Colossian letter: But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, (Colossians 3:8,9) And this passage from Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia: Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21) Each of these things we are to avoid are behaviors that typically involve others, including how we treat them.

     There is an umbrella that covers the way we are to treat each other. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul: Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10) All the people-to-people laws that God has given to mankind over the ages can be kept if we truly love one another. But notice the kind of love we are to have. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (John 13:34) We are to have love for one another even as Jesus loved us. Jesus gave up His life so that we could have eternal life. The kind of love we are to have towards each other is that same kind of love. The apostle John wrote, We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. (1 John 3:16-18) Do you see the depth of love required? It's the kind of love that gives of itself for the benefit of others.

     As you go about your daily routines, be sure to show the kind of love Jesus has shown us to those you meet.