"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. – Mark 4:24

Today's Scripture Reading (December 23, 2023): Mark 4

James Keegstra, an educator and mayor of a small town in Alberta, Canada, passed away on June 2, 2014. But Keegstra is not known because of his political or educational proficiencies. He is known because he believed and taught his students that the Holocaust was a fiction that had been visited on Western culture to enrich the reputation of people of Jewish descent. According to Keegstra, Jewish people were involved in a world conspiracy to destroy Christianity. He taught that Jews were treacherous, subversive, sadistic, money-loving, power-hungry, and child killers. His students were expected to reproduce his teachings on exams and reports, or their marks would suffer. Keegstra was tried in Alberta under the Criminal Code. The charge was that Keegstra "did unlawfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, to wit: the Jewish people, by communicating statements while teaching to students at Eckville High School contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Code." The trial lasted seventy days, and many of his students testified against him. A jury convicted him of the charges, although the penalty was only a $5,000.00 fine.

However, the danger of Keegstra's teachings was problematic to our society. The attention that Keegstra received from international media highlighted another problem. It allowed the small-town teacher to influence an international group of disciples who believed what the teacher taught.

Keegstra also emphasized that we must be careful about what we teach and to whom we are willing to listen. Not all teachers are equal, and we must be cautious about who we might allow to guide us. Even I am not immune to that requirement. Some have accused me that the lens that I view the Bible through is love, but I am okay with that. For me, one of the key biblical passages was spoken at the Last Supper. Jesus told those who gathered with him, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35). I take Jesus at his word; the world won't know we follow him because of how we act or what it is that we might oppose; they will know who we are by how we love. As a result, love features high in my teaching. If we make a mistake in understanding the Bible, we should decide to err on the side of love.

Jesus takes this a step further and argues that we will be judged by the scale we use. If we think Christianity is about righteousness, then God will use that as the measure he uses to evaluate us. If we teach love, then that is how we will be measured. So, if you are going to listen to someone who teaches love, make sure you are willing to try to love whoever you meet or wherever you go.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9