The other night I just couldn't sleep, so I spent some time in reflection and prayer in
order to properly process some things that
folks had come to me about and that I had
experienced personally. I scribed the
thoughts and prayers of my heart in my journal (which I
find is a very helpful practice).
My writing and praying started to reveal a common theme that seemed to
be the core problem. The human tendency to assume the worst about those around us. As my pen kept going, the things that were
burdening my soul just spilled out onto the page almost unconsciously. Allow me to paraphrase my thoughts in one sentence:
Sin corrupts love by making us naturally cynical of those around us.
In
the world today and even in the Church, there is a tendency for us to assume
the worst when it comes to how we perceive those around us. Although our court legislature has
established a policy where a man is innocent until proven guilty, in our daily
lives it is more often the opposite. We
expect that people have poor intentions and
we project that expectation at times on the people around us. For example, when someone says something that offends us,
we tend to assume that they intended to offend us. Or we believe
that individuals have self-seeking agendas behind their actions. There
is a trend to make incriminating conclusions about the character of others with
no real evidence other our subjective interpretation or feelings.
Now
I don’t know about you, but I know I wrongly justify that at times because there have been many instances in my experience where
such assumptions have been true. It is
not difficult to see as we look at the world around us that there are many
examples of people with evil agendas lurking behind their actions. As a result of that fact, it is easy for us
to then take a generalized stance of presuming that people around us have wicked
intentions no matter what the relational context (co-workers, church members,
friends, family, spouses etc). That’s
where our human logic leads us in response to the sinfulness of our world. But we need to look at what Scripture has
to say.
On
that late night I was lead to read and meditate on first Corinthians, chapter
thirteen, verses four through seven.
“Love
is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or
rude. It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
rejoices with the truth. Love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Now,
I know for a lot of us, these verses are familiar. I know we can unfortunately tend to react to their familiarity with apathy and skim over this significant message. However, one of the
listed characteristics popped off
the page: Love “believes all things”. If we took that at face value, many of us
would probably misunderstand the text. I know I did not fully understanding the meaning of it myself. That's why we can’t just be readers of the word, we need to study it. We need to treat the Scriptures like a
gold-mine, with a willingness to dig in order to extract the precious Truth it contains.
I
started going through some of my commentaries, investigating how Biblical
scholars interpreted the meaning of that phrase “believes all things”. They all came to the same conclusion, although they used different, highly educated wording. So, I’m going to try and
break it down in simpler terms for those of you who are like me and find your head spinning
after five syllables.
There
were two facets to the interpretation of this
short but significant phrase. First, it does not mean we should completely abandon any attempt to be
discerning when it comes to relationships. However, any conclusion we come to
should not be an ignorant assumption based on feelings or subjective interpretation, but should be made by asking questions and
gathering objective evidence to support such a conclusion.
Second,
it means that we need to be willing to give those around us the benefit of the
doubt. To be willing to believe the best about someone instead of assuming the worst. Needless to
say, this
is easier said than done. John Calvin put it very well when he said that this goes against the “common spirit”. It is difficult because we as human beings, in this philosophical and cultural era, are naturally cynical. However, if we truly want to love our
neighbors (everyone around us) and experience the fullness of joy what Christ calls us to, the application of this ideal is critical.
