I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. – Psalm 101:3

Today's Scripture Reading (July 19, 2022): Psalm 101

I sometimes find myself in conflict with other Christians. I have to admit that the conflict itself doesn’t really bother me. I enjoy trying to understand where other people are and what they believe, even if I don’t happen to share their belief system. And some of my beliefs that are hard fought, and slowly attained by me, started with someone with whom I was in conflict. I know that I am shaped by the people around me, and so I need to make sure that I don’t surround myself with people with whom I always agree.

What does bother me is the assumption by some that because I believe in a certain way, that I am not a Christian, or that my beliefs should be considered to be vile by the wider Christian community. It is something that I try not to believe about those with whom I am in conflict. I might disagree with something that they believe, but I still understand that they are just Christians who disagree with me. And as long as our disagreements do not lead to one side declaring that the other side is unchristian, then I think disagreement and diversity can be a good thing.

But that also doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that I believe are vile and not worthy of Christians. Jesus taught that we should - 

“‘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 37-40).

All of the law and the commandments depend on our understanding of love. I actually think that Jesus majored on the subject of love, which is probably why John, his disciple, also majored on it. So, anything that goes against this kind of love is vile. If it hurts somebody, it is vile. War is vile. Coercive sexuality is vile. The list of vile sins almost seems endless. Anything whatever goes against Jesus’s law of love is beneath us. We should be better, but sometimes we don’t measure of to that Jesus standard. I think we get our priorities messed up, and we start arguing about things that don’t really matter, instead of majoring on the things that do.

David says that we should not call anything that is vile, good. I agree. Too often in this world we justify our lack of love. We surround ourselves with people we agree with to the point where we seem to have lost the ability to disagree in a loving way. It has to be possible, especially for those of us who call ourselves Christians and are part of Christ’s body (the church) on earth. But even if we disagree, and if I don’t want any part of what you are doing or you don’t want any part of my beliefs, we still need to find a way to love each other. Because you are my neighbor, and I am yours.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 103