30 October 2014

What About the Most of These?

We should all be familiar with Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats (Mt 25/30-46). It is there we find two passages about how we treat the powerless and downtrodden.
  1. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (v, 40)
  2. "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." (v. 45)
Jesus of course was referring to a common tendency to treat the rich, the powerful, the admired, the famous, the respected people well and to look down upon the less fortunate.

But what about the people on the other end of the spectrum? How are we to treat them? Some people flip it around, showing compassion- even admiration- for those with little while heaping disdain (if not hatred) on those judged to be well off.

The reality is that God made us all in his image. Rich and poor, male and female, every ethnicity, every walk of life, whatever the difference, we are made in his image. We should show no more, and no less, honor and love for the rich than the poor, the poor than the rich. Until we truly see all men and women as equal, we are not living up to who we are- to who we were created to be, to who Christ died for us to be.

Love God with every fiber of your being.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Every last one of them.

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