How to live with others.
OUR EXAMPLE
Jesus has given us a perfect example in how we should treat others. There was never an unkind thought or word that passed his lips. He doesn’t see our flaws; He sees our need. And he treats us so. He treats us with the greatest of care.
The Law of God is a perfect description of not only His character but is also a reminder of how we should act in our own lives. The first four commandments point to Him, and the last six point to how we should treat our fellow man.
HOW DO WE LOOK AT OTHERS?
Should we not be looking at our fellow man through the lens of the Ten Commandments? The instruction on how we should treat each other is crystal clear. It’s about:
Respect
Not causing physical pain to someone (or even death)
Not inflicting pain or impacting someone’s mental health by our actions
Not robbing someone of their sense of self-worth and purpose through our critical words
Looking for the good in others
Taking “self” out of the equation of our lives. Others should come first.
In Ellen White’s book, Help In Daily Living, Chapter 2, Living With Others, she writes:
“Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experience is alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.”
“So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each should be careful in the estimate he places upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended on the most important results for good or for evil.”
IN CLOSING
God looks at each one of us as individuals - - our spirit, our body, our soul. He sees our need and meets us where we are at. Our duty is to serve God and help our fellow man. God handles us with care. Should we not be doing the same?
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Further Recommended Reading:
The Ten Commandments: Exodus 20
Ellen White, Help in Daily Living