Why is it so hard to get along?

Why can’t we all just get along? Why is it so difficult?

It is difficult to get along because we are sinners trying to get along with sinners.

Because I am a sinner, I am hard to get along with. I am obnoxious and rude at times. I am self-centered and ugly. I am, at times, dishonest and unloving. This list is too painful to discuss; let’s talk about your sinfulness.

Because you are a sinner, you are hard for me to get along with. You are selfish and mean and snitty and gruff and a pain in the back side. I am called upon to be forgiving and merciful kind. I’m called upon to turn the other cheek and walk the second mile. It would be hard enough to do this for a really nice person. I am called to do it for you—you sinner!

And so, this is our condition: sinners called to love sinners. Broken people called to love broken people. Immature people called to love immature people. Paul David Tripp laments, “As long as we are two sinners living in a fallen world, there will be work to do.”

Who can save me from this horrible condition? I am a sinner—weak and frail and selfish and called to love sinners—obnoxious and rude and selfish mean. I am called to love obnoxious, and hard to get along with people, and I don’t have what it takes to do it.

Thanks be to God who has provided the Holy Spirit within us who uses the Word of God to change us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. We are not transformed by trying really hard. We are transformed by the Holy Spirit using the Word of God to change the way we think.

Through the power of the Word of God I come to see you differently. I come to see you as God sees you. I come to see you as you are.

I come to see you as a forgivable, worthy soul that Christ died for. If God counted you so precious that He would give up the life of His Son so that He could have fellowship with you, surely I must find the grace to do the same. And here’s the rub: my own forgiveness depends on it. If grace is big enough for me, it is big enough for you. Jesus conditioned my forgiveness to my willingness to forgive you. (Matthew 6:14, 15)