A Bible verse that American Christians need to get stuck in their heads

This year, two things have been stuck in my head.

The first is the Hamilton theme song because my son asked me to play it for him several times a day for about six months straight.

The other is a few lines the Spirit moved an old Christian teacher to write to a church of Christ in ancient Rome:

“We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. For Christ did not please himself…” (Letter to the Romans 15:1-3a).

While Hamilton is stuck in my head for good reasons (my son loves it and it’s some of the best music I’ve ever heard in my life), Romans 15:1-3a is stuck in my head for reasons that are not good.

I don’t like to say it, but some of the loudest Christians I heard this year seemed to forget that Romans 15:1-3a is in their Bibles.

Rolling through Facebook, the Christians who posted the most seemed to also be the most condescending, contemptuous, dismissive, impatient, judgmental, and mean. I was sad to see that some of them were my role models and teachers when I was young.

Every time I came across another Christian who wrapped her words in razor wire, my mind replayed: “Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. For Christ did not please himself…”

For example: I am neither exaggerating nor lying when I say that Christians wrote the angriest, ugliest stuff that I saw anyone write about how people are handling the pandemic.

Whenever I saw someone use words like “fearful,” “mindless,” or “weak” to describe people taking precautions, it was always a Christian.

But even if we Christians think that our neighbor is fearful, mindless, or weak, what does the Spirit tell us to do?

“We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. For Christ did not please himself…”

If we Christians keep our distance from others or “mask up,” we don’t do it because we’re afraid. We don’t do it because the government tells us to do it. We do it because “each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor.”

We do it because that is what our Christ does for us.

When we listen to the Spirit, we remember that we are all fearful, mindless, and weak compared to the Christ.

While we may have a case to make against others, the case that the Christ could make against us reminds us to choose to show love and mercy instead. It’s what we need. It’s what our neighbors need.

If we believe that we receive the love and mercy of Christ by grace, then we follow the Way of the Christ in every part of our lives. We put love and mercy into practice. We “put up with” our neighbors. More than that, we “please” and “build up” our neighbors in every place and every way: In politics, public health, and race. Even on social media.

This is what the Christ does for us.

This is the Way of the Christ that we follow.

If we are to tell the world that we are Christians, let’s memorize and put into practice what the Spirit teaches us it means to follow the Way of the Christ:

“We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. For Christ did not please himself…”

Grace and peace.