Treat everyone right

Reflection

Fair and honest treatment of others is one of the most repeated moral demands in scripture, summed up in Jesus's teaching to do to others what you would have them do to you (Matthew 7:12). It sounds simple until it is tested by someone who is difficult, unfair, or unlike us in background or belief. The instruction is not conditional on how deserving someone appears, which is precisely what makes it hard and precisely what makes it distinctively Christian. The Old Testament law repeatedly insists on justice for the stranger, the poor and the vulnerable, not only for one's own community (Leviticus 19:33-34). Treating everyone right, then, is not simply good manners; it reflects something about the character of God, who shows no favouritism. In practical terms it might mean listening properly to someone you find irritating, speaking honestly rather than flattering, or standing up for someone who has no voice in the room. None of that is glamorous, but all of it matters.

Questions to sit with

• Who do you find hardest to treat fairly, and why?
• When did you last go out of your way for someone who could not repay you?
• Does your behaviour change depending on who is watching?

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