How we treat others

“...and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbour no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman...” Psalm 15:3
Psalm 15 gives us the characteristics of someone who is able to dwell in God’s presence. Since we as Christians are clothed with Christ’s righteousness and have a new nature by the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we are able to enter God’s presence. These characteristics should be being developed in our lives – if they are not, we need to take a good hard look at ourselves.
In today’s verse we see three more characteristics, which are to do with how we treat other people, especially with how we talk about them. We might not physically attack or kill anybody, but we can all be guilting of character-assassination by spreading gossip and saying hurtful things about them when they are not there to defend themselves. Gossip and slander should not be things that we are guilty of doing. These are wrong, and we should be doing our neighbour – meaning anyone – any wrong. Instead, we should be going out of our way to do good to other people. Jesus tells us, “But I tell you that hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12). “The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbour as yourself” (Gal. 5:14). Treating others as you would like to be treated, and loving others as you love yourself – and let’s face it, one of the problems we have in society is that people already love themselves – goes above and beyond the world’s version of the golden rule, which is ‘Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.’ It’s easy to live by this rule – you can do it by living alone and not leaving the house. But it’s much harder to actively show love to people, especially those who don’t appreciate it, or those we don’t get along with. Even so, Jesus calls us to do it, and as we obey, we become more like Him.