Imagine if we could/would treat others and other
denominations as if their members were better than us. And, we could do this.
But, it is sort of like the old Smokey the Bear commercial which said:
"only you can prevent forest fires,” since it really is our individual responsibility.
This doesn't mean you're going to be doing like what Steven Wright used to say
in his comedy routine: oh my God, bringing out buckets of water every night
non-stop. The reality is that this idea is not farfetched. Saint Paul had something to say about how we
should treat others in his Epistle to the Philippians. Philippians 2: 3-5 reads
as follows:
“3 Do nothing from selfish ambition
or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each
of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let
the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus … (NRSV).”
Obviously, if we actually regard others as better than ourselves
and other do the same towards us, we might get this ecumenism thing nipped in
the bud very quickly. Of course, I don't
have the older manuscripts for Philippians, but I'm sure even looking at things
from the political spectrum it doesn't
say in this verse to treat others, except Trump or Hillary, it just says treat
others (everybody else's besides ourselves). I hope we get the idea
correct. I think I will stop here. I simply wanted to expand a little more on
the previous post to sort of hit the nail on the head. Blessings!
Reference:
NRSV Bible
If Christians started treating others like Christians it could, however, be the end of the world as we know it.
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