Emptied

 . . . but emptied himself . . . 

 - From Philippians 2

And now . . . a typical on-line comment by an evangelical:

If you're <fill in the blank>, what's a few thousand more deaths as long as you win your next election?

The person that I'm quoting is a lifelong Christian. A former Director of Publications and Editor of a denominational newsletter. He taught in a Christian college for twenty years.

He is a broken record of nonstop vitriol against one wing of American politics. The wing that he attacks is more likely to have his back, if things ever got particularly dangerous.

But it doesn't matter what side he's on. Variations of the above quote are commonplace, coming from all sides, against the other. The "other" side promotes policies that "murder" people. The other side is sub-human, idiotic, evil, sick, sheep, cultists, Nazis, Communists, etc., etc., etc.

And it only makes things worse.

Christ had none of that. He emptied Himself. He didn't go stir up political strife as a play for attention. He eschewed attention. He didn't insult people as a defense against His own hurt feelings. His gentleness disabled anger. It brought enemies together. It disarmed His adversaries.

Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay.

That's another of Christ's tenets. Keep it simple. Do the hard work, the extra effort, to be still and listen. To put others first. To understand why they think as they do. To get into their shoes.

And to keep your mouth shut . . . especially when your friends have been advising you to do so, for years.