Within American Christianity at least, there's this mentality of salvation being entirely for one's own benefit That is, our entire reasoning about it is selfish. But what we say and do affects others. Helpful words and actions affect them positively, and harmful words and actions affect them negatively. If I am hurtful to the person next to me, the anger and hurt generated within that person is likely to carry to how he or she interacts with someone else, or many others. Our helpful or hurtful actions and words ripple out from us to others, and even others not within our own circle of acquaintances, those we have never met. Thus a kind word or an unkind word to a single person might affect hundreds if not thousands or more. As an inherently sinful people (to use traditional terminology) who can do nothing but sin, we risk harm to others with every word or action which originates from our own natures or natural psychology. Something a single person might say or do can have a global impact without them realizing it.
A good study of this is the current situation with Blizzard and World of Warcraft. A very few people within the company did and said harmful things to their subordinates. The harm however did not end with those subordinates. As of this writing, the future of World of Warcraft is in doubt. This seems like a small, insignificant thing, but this game spawned a community of millions of real people who develop for it, create content for and about it, meet and keep lasting friends within it (I remember one article in the BBC about a kid with ALS whose entire social life was on WoW, and whose guildmates mourned him so deeply they flew in from many different countries to attend his funeral much to the surprise of his parents), and even earn their livelihoods from playing it and reporting on it. Every single one of their lives has been impacted by the revelation of the harmful behavior committed by those executives at Blizzard. People who, for the most part, they don't even know, have never met, and are just faces in a sea of humanity.
One of my personal biggest fears now is hurting people or causing harm by what I say or do, no matter how well intentioned. I've seen and experienced it too many times, as well as watched the aftermath of hurt, angry, and even damaged people from my behaviors. I'm kind of done with it and with my own malfunctioning behaviors.
Honestly, the closer I draw to Christ, and the more I see and experience of my own malfunction, the more I wish and would even beg God to just override or even erase who I am completely, to let me be His automaton. But God refuses. He refuses to displace my will and my psyche with His. It's a cooperation of submission to Him or not at all. He respects my individuality when I do not, even as I seek to surrender myself to Him. But God's answer to me is always the same as to Paul, "My charity is enough for you, because the power is brought to completion with weakness."
Our union with Him is by way of cooperation not domination. We willingly and knowingly submit to Him so that the natural psychology is bypassed and He acts and speaks through us. He won't force us to do it, but there are natural consequences of harm to ourselves and others if we don't.
Our salvation, not just from the consequences of sin, but from our "sin nature" itself by means of Jesus Christ, our submission and voluntary enslavement to His Spirit as described in Romans 6-8, isn't just about us, it's about every other person around us. The most loving thing you can do for others is to be a disciple yourself, submit to your crucifixion with Him (Romans 6, Galatians 2:20; 6:14, Colossians 3:3 ), ask Him to act and speak through you, and then disengaging from yourself letting Him do it. It is only when it is the Spirit of Christ acting and speaking through us that we can be assured we are not harming those around us, and those we don't even know.
By loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we love all others around us, because then God loves all others through us. We cannot love God without loving others. By loving all others, we also demonstrate love for God, because we love what is precious to Him.
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