No Man is an Island

“No man is an island.”

This saying reflects the truth that we are all interconnected. No man can truly succeed when isolated from others; we depend on one another. There’s no place, culture, race or people better than another. It takes the sum of all to make up the human race. Obviously, we are currently living in a very interdependent time, and this saying speaks to that fact.

With that said, let’s do a little experiment: picture the Earth like a peeled orange. When you remove a couple of wedges from it and the orange is no longer a perfect creation or sphere, it’s incomplete. Brotherhood is no different; we need all of mankind to make up the human race.

Somewhere down your family tree someone may have disliked a particular country or group of people. Some of the reasons may have been historical land disputes, wars and the like.

“Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in sight of all men.” (Rom. 12:17)

So many of these disputes can be solved through our children’s generation. In brotherly love they can grow up together in a society that will not tolerate these ancient conflicts that have not been rectified because people simply refuse to let go of the past. If we look closely, we may discover that many these conflicts are based on misconceptions, intolerance. Grievance’s passed down through time tend to get distorted and become counterfeit to the point that no one can tell the truth of a matter. Consequently, many disputes have been going on for far too long with no reasonable end in sight.

Far too many people have been persecuted in horrific ways. We have a regrettable long history of not having brotherly love towards our fellow man. Men have filled history books with these atrocities, why? This is not something we should want to preserve as a people. Look how many of our fellow human beings have been slaughtered and allowed to suffer?

“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12:21)

We need to stop raising our children to follow in the footsteps of indifference or worse: hate, segregation, prejudice and racism; most of which are being taught as traits, whereas contrary to this, the Bible teaches the need for us to live in unity with love towards one another.

There have been many men and women down through the ages who have encouraged brotherly love towards one another. I personally met the late author Dr. Richard Jones on two separate occasions. At our last meeting, he gave me his book, A Life Long Pursuit of Brotherhood. This was his life story written at 82 years old. He thought it would take two weeks to complete but instead over a year of work involved. He passed away at 96 years old in December 2001. The book has many great stories about people who fought for equality between the races. In 1963, Dr. Jones is pictured sitting, laughing with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and two other men. He said of Dr. King, “I am a better person because I know Dr. Martin Luther King.” I mention this because it brings back memories of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Dr. King said he looked forward to the day when his little children could be accepted and play with all children of the world. Do you feel that dream has come true now, in the decades since Dr. King’s speech? I have a saying that I’ve been using for so long I can’t remember when I started telling it. It is:

“God made one kind of people ‘human beings’ in His image no less; and secondly, one piece of real-estate, planet Earth. Man should have dominion over it, not dominate it claiming ‘my part is better than yours.’ This just keeps us from solving our problems and continues to promote the divisions amongst us.”

If we keep telling our fellow man that we’re better than another or our piece of ground is superior, there will never be peace on Earth. Satan loves this kind of fighting, because it plays into his strategy. Remember, divide and conquer is his motto. How often have you heard two or more people from the same country argue about which part of their country is best? Both of course hold their own bias.

Why don’t we thwart the Prince of Darkness by following instead, the method of God, the Father, and Jesus Christ our soon coming King of kings?

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14)

Dr. Jones spent his efforts in a “lifelong pursuit of brotherhood” how about you?