Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. It is good to be back. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is the Rev Graeme Atkinson, the minister of Sandyhills parish church in Glasgow.
The Rev Graeme Atkinson (Sandyhills Parish Church, Glasgow)
One of the most quoted phrases of Jesus is the command for us to love our enemies. As well as being often quoted, it is often overlooked, as it goes against our nature. When we try it, we find that we frequently fail. The reason why so many in the world fail is that we misunderstand the nature of love. We confuse love with approval or endorsement. They are not the same.
We love our children, but we certainly do not always approve of their choices, opinions, tastes or attitudes. Our love is not conditional on our level of approval. We tolerate the things that we do not like because we love our children and our love takes priority.
Jesus is telling us to take that approach and apply it to the person whom you like the least in the world. He is saying that you can disagree on politics, moral values, philosophy, God or whether women make better drivers than men, and yet still truly love that other person. That is what tolerance is—when you continue to disagree but continue to love. If you love only those you agree with and endorse, you are not a loving person and you are not a Christian, as the Bible understands it.
If I believe fundamentally different things from the man next door, I will live life differently from the way he does. Tolerance is not when one of us changes our view so that we now agree. It is to recognise the difference and be able to say—perhaps not as bluntly as this—“I think that you are wrong. I disagree with what you believe, what you say and how you live your life, but I will love you nevertheless.” Why would we do that? Because that is what Jesus calls us to do.
We are good at labelling people and then either loving them or otherwise depending on the label, but that is not what Jesus means. He means us to love even those whom we find unlovely—our enemies—just as much as those whom we would naturally love.
Abraham Lincoln, on being rebuked that he should destroy his enemies and not be so polite to them, answered wisely, “Do I not destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?”
It is not about giving up or lessening your convictions or being less passionate in holding those convictions. It is about still loving through those convictions. What a wonderful world that would be.