Love Them, Anyway

I Chronicles 19:1–7

“In the course of time, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son succeeded him as king. David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David’s envoys came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to express sympathy to him, the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Haven’t his envoys come to you only to explore and spy out the country and overthrow it?” So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved them, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away. When someone came and told David about the men, he sent messengers to meet them, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.” When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram Naharaim, Aram Maakah and Zobah. They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and charioteers, as well as the king of Maakah with his troops, who came and camped near Medeba, while the Ammonites were mustered from their towns and moved out for battle.”

Often people will not understand and even be suspicious of the help and kindness we offer especially those who do not know us (or especially those who know us to be Christians). May our motives be always pure and that we may ever aim to please our Father in heaven. The LORD reminds us to be careful “not to perform your righteous acts before people to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be praised by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matt 6:1–4).” It is ultimately between us and God, this is what the poem “Anyway” concludes (one of Mother Teresa’s favourites, and she may have added this last bit): “You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them [people] anyway.” The poem starts with “people are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.” God commanded us to love Him foremost and to love people, love our neighbour (Matt 22:38) no matter what, granted that the ‘love’ we express is biblical, encouraging, gentle, and filled with truth. The bible exhorts us that in all our dealings (and especially with our Christian community fellow sinners saved by God’s grace) to strive for integrity, kindness, and love, no matter how difficult: “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith (Gal 6:9-10).” This is the logical conclusion in action of our love and gratitude towards our Father, our Redeemer. Holy Spirit empower us that we may do well and thereby grant us favour in the sight of God first, and people as well, like Your Apostles of the Early Church (Acts 5:13-14), in Jesus’ glorious Name, amen.