Strike Me Blind In One Eye
To choose to harm your enemy is to choose to harm yourself.
"Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you" (Colossians 3:13).
Nehemiah and the Tall Poppy Syndrome
Tall Poppy Syndrome is a term coined to explain the mindset of people who attack successful people. It's name gives the idea that the flower that grows the tallest is cut off because it sticks out. This has also been called the Crabs in a Barrel mindset where a person's success set them up as a target for attack, largely out of jealousy and envy of their fellow employees. This takes the drive out of someone's ambition at work or in life.
Nehemiah and the Jews had focused on rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. It didn't take long for their neighbors to notice. They began to resist the Jews' efforts through threats, taunting, confusion, and demoralization. Yet the Jews persisted in their efforts.
Whenever someone does something bold for God, be it starting a church, taking up missions, bringing change in the community, they will inevitably face the resistance of those seeking to stop them or slow them down.
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others" (Philippians 2:3-4, NIV).
Pursuing Unity in a Divided World
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of division in the world today. People are divided over religion, and religious practices. People are divided over politics, and political opinions. People are even divided over whether this dress is white and gold or black and blue.
Remember that from a few years back? When this picture first showed up on the internet, the internet was divided over what colors this dress was. How many of you see a gold and white dress? How many of you see a blue and black dress? Isn’t that weird?
But in truth, the dress really was black and blue, so there was a right answer. But because of the lighting conditions of the picture, many people perceived the colors differently.
Now, some of the things we divide over are silly, but some are warranted, because there really is a right and wrong. It’s evil to cry out, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. In other words, we shouldn’t pretend everything about today’s culture is okay, celebrating what’s immoral for the sake of peace, when there are real evils in the world.
Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And sometimes that means our own families will be against us because of our faith in Christ. There’s division.
And yet, because Jesus came, the Bible promises that God tears down the walls of hostility so that we can have peace with one another, not only in eternity, but today, as we rest in Jesus.
"And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 1:10, NLT).
"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14, NIV).