July 30, 2013 (Tuesday)
“And now abideth faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13)
Research with infants and children has revealed a whole new world of ideas about how children make judgments at a very early age. For example, a 6-months-old child was offered two types of cereal. The little guy chose one of them. Later, stuffed animals, handled by hidden humans, like puppets, were introduced and they “chose” one of the cereals. Afterwards, the several stuffed animals were offered to the child who selected his favorite. After many trials of this experiment, it was determined that 87% of the time the babies chose stuffed animals that “chose” the same cereal as they had chosen. (They liked the same thing so they must be one of us). This revealed that the “Us-Them” mentality is a characteristic with which we are born. Other experiments revealed that as children grow, they gradually learn to be more objective and fair as they relate to others.
The “Us-Them” idea is very much a part of our makeup, isn’t it? Personal loyalties take precedence over idealistic ideas, choices and allegiances.
One of the harshest criticisms hurled at Jesus centered around this idea. When Jesus showed that he cared about Samaritans, Syro-Phonecians, outcasts and sinners, he incurred the wrath of the established authorities because he was a friend to all.
This is a strong feature of our personalities. When a person becomes the object of our rejection, our whole group joins in the condemnation, because his behavior has shown that “he is not one of us.” This is one of the roots of mob violence, mindless riots, and hate-filled rhetoric.
Jesus’ last discourse before He was crucified included a “New Commandment: Love One Another.” We need to suppress our natural tendencies to join the rejection crowd in order to follow the commandment of Christ–the most important of all the commandments. Jesus spoke often of love and forgiveness. We believe in both. If only we would put them into practice.