But that’s messed up, and it’s not exactly what the intended when He inspired Paul to write, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).
It’s not the same thing as 1 Corinthians 13, beginning in verse 3: “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. |
I get this whole “Pay It Forward” idea. I understand that people are trying to inspire others to be nice. But I’m afraid we pass along the wrong idea if we wait for someone to do something for us before we will do something for someone else. Do we do it out of guilt or a sense of duty, or do we serve others because it’s the right – or righteous – thing to do?
Even more troubling might be the idea that people continually try to get something for nothing. I can think of two times in our lives in which we receive something for nothing: one is at our birth – a time when we did nothing to deserve life (That would be ridiculous.), and the second is our rebirth – a time that begins when we obediently respond to the Gospel, with a reward made possible by our Savior’s sacrifice on a cross. He did it before we existed so we could spend eternity in Heaven, because he knows there is nothing we can do to gain that reward for ourselves.