Aldo Leopold was a U.S. forester and the author of a well-known early masterpiece on ecology, A Sand County Almanac. Here's a sample of what he wrote:
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
Here he's writing about our relationship to what we see around us all the time—the land. His point is that the planet is a community in which we're responsible to play our part. When we're in harmony with it, the land and all living things are the beneficiaries. Of course, we have the evidence all around us of what happens when we abuse our relationship with land.
Abuse is an interesting word. Ab-use: It means wrong use. Like the land, we humans are also subject to wrong use by others. If Aldo Leopold's comments on land are applied to humans, how much more powerful are they? Substituting a few words in Leopold’s quote, and applying the quote to human relationships, here's what we get:
“We abuse people because we regard them as a commodity we may use freely. When we see people as a community to which we belong, we may begin to relate to them with love and respect.”
There are many books that dispense advice about how to relate to each other as a community, but few can improve on the timeless wisdom in the pages of the Bible. It teaches that a healthy community is made up of all kinds of relationships—husbands, wives, parents, children, old people, young people, employers, employees—and has much to say about how different cultures should respond to one another as well. In fact, the Bible has something to say about every conceivable kind of human relationship. One thing the Bible teaches is that all relationships have to be based on the right kind of love: the outgoing kind that enables us to love our neighbor as we love and take care of the self. People who have this kind of love are going to be seeking the good of others, and are not going to abuse other people by manipulation for selfish ends or by trying to use others. They are going to be unselfish. They are going to be patient.
In contrast, human nature teaches us to use other people. To fight back when we feel wronged. It doesn't teach us to please and forgive others. Yet, none of the Bible's instructions about family and relationships leave room for any kind of dictatorial, manipulative, pressuring behavior—using other people to get the results we want.
What God wants for humans is the experience of peaceful relationships based on the principles of love toward God and therefore obedience to His way. Living these principles is about a real appreciation for and love toward neighbor, treating others with dignity and with respect for their individual freedom before God. It’s about giving oneself for others rather than taking from others for the benefit of self.
It’s about getting relationships right—a vitally important part of each day's experience.
