All in the Family
- roamcare
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
Something unusual, somethihg special is happening this week. The Jewish community celebrates Passover, and both Eastern and Western Christian rites celebrate Holy Week leading to Easter Sunday. That led us to think about the similarities we share and how they outnumber the differences. The commonalities go back as far as their origins.
The various Christian and Jewish religions and congregations, together with Islam, trace their origins to the prophet Abraham. Seventy percent (70%) of the world’s population follow one of these religions. That’s almost 6 billion people. When we say more of us are alike that we are not, we really are!
Without making this a theological discussion, we will explain our understanding of the Abrahamic religions. All these religions consider Abraham as one to whom God revealed Himself and is their spiritual source. Abraham’s first-born Ishmael leads us to Islam. Judaism traces its origin to Abraham through his son by Sarah, Isaac. Christian’s believe Abraham to be the physical ancestor of Jesus through the house of David.
Of course, there are many and significant differences in their foundational beliefs and theological claims, but they commonly recognize Abraham as their spiritual progenitor, chosen by God as the recipient of the Divine Covenant. All Abrahamic religions describe God as holy, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, benevolent, just, and the creator of the universe. They further believe that God holds a personal relationship with every individual.
In a world of increasing tension often escalating to outright conflict, this is the perfect time to remember that person you are arguing with is your spiritual sibling, or at least, a close friend of the family. Yes, brothers and sisters do disagree and sometimes have pretty colorful discussions, yet know that at the end of the day, each day, they still love each other. Is it that difficult to love your neighbor the same way?
World Relief, a humanitarian organization tracing its roots to the end of the Second World War works with local level churches and communities to strengthen community bonds. They address loving your neighbor as an integral part of being human and offer the Seven Ways to Love Your Neighbor.
Take the initiative
Spend time with others
Share a meal
Foster reconciliation
Listen. to others
Advocate for others
Get together
Did you notice they are all active ideas. Fred Rogers said love is active, like struggle. We used that phrase when we discussed Love’s Struggles and wrote, “the love of friendship, companionship, and emotional ties…exist to remind [us] that people are lovable without having to perform for it. But not without having to work for it.” It’s not hard work. We went on to say to love is to be there to listen, to empathize, to support, and to accept, and to keep doing that over and over. Again, active concepts involving work, and still not too hard.
Between our 4 suggestions and World Relief’s 7 ways, that’s more than a couple handfuls of ways to love your neighbor, your spiritual sibling. This is an exciting time to start getting to know each other better and concentrate on those commonalities. Act like the one big family we truly are.
We indeed are all one family! All created in the image of God, all loved by Him, all cherished by Him, everyone is someone He longs to open their hearts to Him to receive that love. Your words bring to mind the second great commandment: love others as you love yourself. Most of us don't know ourselves well enough to love us, but we could start there.