Life together

Live together
Martin Luther King jr. prayed,

We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man.

We are in nature but we live above nature.

Help us never to let anybody or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate.

Give us strength to love our enemies 

and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us.

We thank thee for thy Church, founded upon thy Word, 

that challenges us to do more  than sing and pray,

 but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers

 depended on us and not upon thee.

Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like stars

 and live on through all eternity.

Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace;

 help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together 

until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow 

will rejoice in one common bond of humanity 

in the kingdom of our LORD and of our God, we pray.

Amen.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke that prayer at the height of the civil rights movement in the united states in the 1960's. All Christians need to heed what it says. King was in his way saying, love God, your neighbour and even your enemy.
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver in a December 22nd 1940 sermon said,
“There is one other fundamental difference between love and hate.  Love is always a refuge.  Hate is never a refuge.  Only a mentally sick person can find refuge in his hates.  But love is the enduring sanctuary of life.  Life may rob you of many things.  It often does.  But it can never bereave us of love itself.  That remains.”
He was right. Be we Christians, Jews or anyone else we must love.
Especially if we are Christians WE MUST LOVE.
Jesus when asked,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  
This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40.
Jesus however did not stop there he said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”Matthew 5:43-45.
To me that means Christians should not be following anyone be it a religious leader or a political leader that is in any way espousing hate, be it in word or in deed.
Sadly the second world war and the rise of Hitler and his cronies showed what happened when people did not stand up to leaders who espoused hate.
Martin Niemoller who at the beginning supported Hitler but then turned into a ardent Anti-Nazi wrote,

“When they came for the Communists, 

I did not stand up, because I was not a Communist. 

When they came for the Jews, 

I did not stand up, because I was not Jewish. 

When they came for the Catholics, 

I did not stand up, because I was not a Catholic. 

When they came for me, there was no one left to stand up.

        ”Tony Campolo the American Evangelist said,
“These issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.”
He is right.
Sadly what passes for Evangelical Christianity in the United States in particular and in North America in general is not. It tends to be religion mixed with politics. A bad mix in which the teachings of Jesus are at best watered down and at worst existent in word only.
The Apostle Paul warned of such times when he said,

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. 

Instead, to suit their own desires, 

they will gather around them a great number of teachers 

to say what their itching ears want to hear.  

They will turn their ears away from the truth 

and turn aside to myths.” 

2Timothy 4:3,4.

As true Christians we need to come back to the teachings of our Lord and His apostles. We need to be looking carefully at the scriptures and practising what they say in spirit and in truth. Not twisting them in a way that we want to hear.
Jesus said,
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.
He didn’t say support a political party or follow a specific religious leader. He said go and make disciples of all nations and teach what he taught.
Paramount in the teaching of Jesus was,
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
As a Christian are you doing this?
Please think about it.