Others in Your Life
The spiritual person, among the signs of his spirituality, is that he divests himself of his self-centeredness and prefers others over himself. He places others in a position greater than himself. So, what place do others have in your life…
Others in Your Life
Believe the truth of that writer who said:
“He who lived only for himself did not deserve to live.”
Therefore, the spiritual person, in his life within society, finds his pleasure in living for the sake of others, following the Lord’s saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Thus, he loves everyone from the depths of his heart…
And his love for others is practical love, according to what the Apostle said: “Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
This love is characterized by giving and characterized by sacrifice, whether physically or spiritually… Therefore, the spiritual person is by nature a servant.
He serves others in every field, not because he is required to do so, but because service is part of his nature and part of his being. He feels love in it, and is nourished by it more than he nourishes others.
And if service is the work of angels, how much more so human beings…
Beautiful is the saying of our teacher Paul the Apostle concerning the service of angels:
“Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). And when the angels serve human beings, they serve them out of love and sacrifice, not out of duty or obligation. Look at the seraphim appointed for praise: when they heard from Isaiah that he was of unclean lips, one of them flew quickly, took a live coal from the altar, and purified Isaiah’s lips with it (Isaiah 6:6).
The Lord Christ manifested His love for humanity in service and redemption:
Thus it was written about Him in Scripture: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). And as the Lord also said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
How beautiful it is for a person to be a cause of happiness for everyone around him.
Hence was the love that characterizes motherhood, and that characterizes fatherhood: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,” “If a mother forgets her nursing child, I will not forget you.” This love that makes others happy through giving and sacrifice is one of the characteristics of spiritual people. Therefore, Scripture rightly said:
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” For in giving there is love for others, while receiving often contains concern for oneself…
The love that gives reveals the depths of the Lord’s saying, “For I was hungry and you gave Me food…” and the depths of the saying of Paul the Apostle: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). And the giving that springs from love is different from giving that is merely carrying out a commandment, or done to gain praise, or to fulfill a duty…
There are professions that are a place of people’s love because they care for them:
An example of this is medicine, nursing, and social service. There are also spiritual physicians, the fathers of confession who carry people’s burdens and lessen their troubles. There may be a person who does not offer material assistance to another, but offers a listening ear that hears and comforts them, or offers a kind smile or a word that cheers the heart, and they love him.
In contrast to this are those who center around themselves; their self is everything…
How difficult is the person who says, “Me or the flood,” or the poet who said, “If I die thirsty, let the rain not fall.”
This was not a spiritual attitude. Such was the attitude of Jonah the prophet when he became angry at the salvation of the people of Nineveh, angry because his word concerning their punishment was not carried out, and he considered that to be against his dignity!! Therefore, God rebuked him, saying, “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4). But Moses the prophet set a lofty example in loving others.
This was when he pleaded with the Lord for the sake of the erring people, saying: “Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written” (Exodus 32:32). Likewise, Paul the Apostle said: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3). Both preferred to be deprived of the Lord Himself—that is, to lose their eternity—for the sake of saving others… And this is a marvelous, ideal thing in love, although in terms of carrying it out, it is impossible…
So, at the very least in terms of love, we should pray for others.
For this reason, there are people who make others a prominent element in their prayers. And the Church, in her liturgical prayers, does not leave anyone without praying for them; rather, she even prays for animals…
And the Lord God gave us a beautiful teaching about praying for others when He gave us the Lord’s Prayer, in which God was addressed in the plural—not in the singular—integrating the needs of others with our own. We also pray the Creed.
Christianity teaches us that we are all members of one body…
If one member suffers, the other members suffer with him. And the Apostle says to us, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).
So, what have we done for others, whoever they may be?
We love those who love us. But the Lord Christ says to us, “And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” (Matthew 5:47). Therefore, we have a duty toward sinners and those who offend us as well… toward those who make us walk a mile, or those who quarrel with us and want to take the garment, or those who curse or offend…
And here is our first duty toward others: patience and forgiveness…
Not all people are good and kind. As for those who err, we have a duty toward them, which is to bear with them. Our teacher Paul said, “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak” (Romans 15:1). Those who do not bear with others lose much. And this is not good…
How wonderful is the saying of Scripture, “He who wins souls is wise.”
And we cannot win people if we hold them accountable for every action, with great exactness, and multiply reproach and blame… Therefore, forgiveness toward those who offend is one of the first qualities of the spiritual person, no matter how numerous the offenses, even up to seventy times seven every day…
And God has made our forgiveness of people a condition for His forgiveness of us…
For He said, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37), “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15). And we pray, saying, “Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive those who sin against us” (Matthew 6:12)…
And the spiritual person treats others with humility, and prefers them in everything over himself, and through this he wins others. Scripture has said: “In honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).
The spiritual man always puts himself in the last seat and disappears so that people may appear. He always attributes credit to others. He does not praise himself, but always praises people…
The spiritual person does not build his comfort upon the toil of others. Rather, he always toils in order to comfort others. He is a candle that melts so that people may be enlightened by it, those whom he places at the summit of his concern…
The spiritual man does all his effort to build others up… He does not ask who among them is deserving and who is undeserving; rather, he thinks about who among them is in need, and how he can exert all his effort so that he leaves no one in need of anything, when he is able to give it to him…
And he is bound to all people by a strong bond of good treatment, in an atmosphere of courtesy, understanding, and one spirit, observing the saying of the Apostle that we chant in the Morning Prayer: “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, one body and one Spirit” (Ephesians 4).
The elder son did not take his returning brother into consideration. He did not rejoice in his joy, nor did he share in the feast that was prepared for him. Rather, he focused his attention on himself and on what should be given to him by his father…
As for us, let us deny ourselves, in order to love others… and make them happy.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III — Al-Keraza Magazine — Tenth Year, Issue Five — February 2, 1979.
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