What is the best way to make spaghetti bolognaise? What is the best way to wash the car? What is appropriate when it comes to how we treat others?
The family and circumstances in which we grow up shape us greatly. What we think of as normal is often merely the practice of the household we grew up in. So, people who move in together for share houses, college dorms, or in marriage often find the behaviours of those they live with inexplicable or strange, while the other person thinks nothing of it.
Automatically, we tend to live as we have lived before.
As Christians, we all have different backgrounds. But there is one centring principle that redirects how we are to act now. Jesus says to everyone who follow him:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
We no longer live as we have lived before, but love others as we have been loved by Jesus Christ. How can you and I change our unreflected and received behaviours, and love others like Christ?
– Sam Pursell