Wisdom? Or Common Sense?

A friend of mine recently posted a photo of me on Facebook. It's actually a photo of a page in the most recent issue of our University magazine for alumni, and supporters, and friends of the institution. It was in a piece entitled, "On Civil Discourse," and I was grateful to be interviewed for this important article. (Not that my contributions were so amazing, or anything.) I encourage you to read it; you can find it online here: On Civil Discourse.

My friend shared the photo with a post, "Check out my smart friend Dave speaking wisdom." I'm grateful that she thought this was wise! Here's the photo, grabbed from her Facebook post:

In my interview, I know we talked about this, and I definitely do believe it: we should go out of our way to be respectful of others. Period. Full stop. We human beings should be respectful of other human beings.

And if they aren't respecting us?

I suggest, particularly for those of us seeking to live out biblical Christianity, this is a non-negotiable: we are called to live respectfully.

But what if they aren't being respectful of us? Doesn't that give us license to...

NOPE. (Stop it.)

But, Dave, come on. You know, sometimes people aren't very nice...and it sounds like you're saying we should be nice to them even if they aren't nice to us. Is that what you're saying?

Ummm...yeah. Pretty much.

While I'm grateful that my friend suggested that this is wise counsel, I'm wondering if this is really just common sense, in the Gospel vision. When Jesus says, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you," I think he really meant it. (Check it out in context in Matthew 5:43-48.) Jesus goes on in this passage to say that if you only love (respect?) people who love (respect?) you, what good is that? Even "tax collectors" (the lowest of the low, in that society) do that.

This is really just a word of encouragement for my Christian sisters and brothers, I guess: if you're seriously going to call yourself "Christian," which literally means "little Christ," let's start acting a little more like Jesus.

And maybe we could start by treating others with respect. Even if you disagree with them. Even if you don't like them. Even if they aren't respectful of you.

Demonstrate your love by putting it into action!