More Love

By Comparison . . . .

Luke15:28-32 (NIV)

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”                

Comparing ourselves to others can leave us feeling puffed-up and superior.  But God doesn’t compare us to others.  This story of the Prodigal serves to give us a glimpse of how God sees us.  It helps us consider how he views our strengths and our weaknesses.  He doesn’t see our strengths as being as wonderful as we think they are.  Nor does he judge our neighbor’s weaknesses as harshly as we do.  Loving your neighbor as yourself means understanding that his view of himself is as flawed as yours, and he thinks he is okay when he compares himself to you.  Give him the same grace you afford yourself, because, while you may berate yourself about your weaknesses you constantly congratulate yourself about your strengths as though you are somehow responsible for them. (This is a generic “you”.  It means “we”, “I”, “all of us”.  I am commenting on a human condition.) 

 

I once asked a group I was speaking to, “How many of you were the ‘older brother’ from this passage in your youth?” Those who raised their hands (including me), all bore the same pained, long-suffering expression.  What a burden it had been to us to be so diligent while others enjoyed life.  What hogwash!  We chose our lot believing it would reap its rewards (love, acceptance, praise, freedom from guilt, whatever).  Our motives are at best, suspect. Enough! 

Here is my point:  we all make sinful adaptations to our early life experiences; some positive, some negative.  Anyone, by virtue of his genealogy, temperament, personality, upbringing, or challenges, may develop attitudes, thought patterns, habits, or behaviors which we and society view as good.  This is not the righteousness of God and is of little value to him. That is why, in the eyes of God, both the prodigal and his brother sinned.  Everything about us, “good” or “bad” must be submitted to God for cleansing before it can become His righteousness.  And His is the only kind He counts.

Wise are those who look at others with the same generosity they offer themselves, and who look at themselveswith the same critical eye they have for others. (Unknown)