Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 233 – Remembrance Day

I am in England, and here like Canada we celebrate Remembrance Day, paying tribute to the fallen and those who served in war. 

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:43-45

As a Canadian of Dutch extraction I am doubly compelled to remember, since Canadians sacrificed so much to liberate The Netherlands in World War II. As well as the liberators, I remember my grandfather Meindert and my dad Tom, who both fought in the Resistance in The Netherlands.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” Romans 12:9

I have struggled with the seeming contradiction between these two groups of verses. We can of course fall back on that phrase, “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” and there is truth in that in both life and business. Meindert urged my father and later me to think more deeply. He insisted to never ‘hate’ the ordinary (often conscripted) German soldier, but to fight hard against the evil that the SS and Gestapo manifested. 

That distinction is so important.  We as business people do not have to ‘like’ evil, or even put up with it. We abhor it. We do not need to work with companies and clients who consistently do bad things; I have been burned too many times by giving such clients ‘one more chance’. Instead, we hold fast to what is good, providing an example of Light for all to see. 

Prayer

God, help me cling to what I good.

Amen