“Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.”

On March 3, 1991 Rodney King was beaten by four LAPD officers and the beaten was captured by a amateur video recorder. After the video was released it sparked the LA riots. In an attempt to quell the riots, King appeared before news cameras and made his infamous statement,“Can we all get along.”

The Apostle Paul makes a similar appeal in Romans 12:16 when he exhorted the church at Rome that comprised Gentiles and Jews to get along. The ethnic makeup of the church prompted Paul to say what he said. Gentiles comprised the majority of the membership in Rome. Historically, Jews thought themselves to be superior to any people group that wasn’t Jewish born! With this in view, Paul calls for them to get along with each other. The motivation for them getting along was their common faith and union in Jesus Christ!

Christians united in Christ should not allow their personal, ethnic,  political or economic differences keep them from getting along! Sometimes Christians can allow their differences to divide them and keep them from working as a cohesive unit. Paul knew that if they were to be effective as well as impact Rome with the gospel of Jesus Christ, they would have to get along. To do so, Romans 12:16 suggests that they would have to get over themselves and  practice humility.

Christians today are admonished to get along with each other and ditch their superiority complex,  arrogant spirit and their know it all attitude. What’s keeping you from getting along with people in your life? Moving forward, choose to get along and stop being stuck on yourself!

God help me to get over myself and get along with the people in my life, Amen!

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