In Agreement

Today I risk sounding a little picky. But there’s a point to my complaint.

I am participating in a community Bible reading project in my church, and we are committed to reading through the whole of the New Testament in about 8 weeks. The book reads more like a novel in some ways, as its order is rearranged to better reflect the chronology of the writings and there are very helpful introductions which fill out the picture of what lay behind some of the letters and books.

I’m enjoying the challenge and managing to keep up with the reading demands of 10-ish pages a day. 

What is irritating me is that the editors of this publication have played fast and loose with a basic grammar rule – the rule of agreeing the subject and pronoun. For instance, ‘anyone who has ears to hear, let them hear.’ Ouch! Let him hear. Or her. But not them.

At least the editors are consistent. They make the same mistake every time.

Now most readers probably will barely notice the errors, but the sound of the sentence structure will slowly saturate their brains until they, too, speak and write like that, believing they are using grammar correctly. 

It’s exactly the same in society. As rules of behaviour are consistently flouted, people forget there ever were such rules. Many of these rules are undoubtedly silly and deserve to be forgotten. A man standing up when a woman enters the room, for instance.  

Others, however, reflect a cultural mind-set which creates a better society for all. Executives readily admitting responsibility when institutions over which they governed have failed their clients. Police. NHS Executives. Banking CEO’s. Politicians taking their punishment for laws they have broken. 

Generosity rather than greed. Humility rather than hubris. Integrity at the top. 

Selfish attitudes from the top filter down to become the norm. People at every level begin to believe that it’s not just ok to look out for number 1, but it’s foolish not to. It’s foolish to put others before oneself.

I’m grateful that although irritated by the grammatical mistakes, the message I am hearing from Jesus and his followers of the first century consistently rejects selfish ambition.

In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. 

If only that message could subliminally permeate our minds we would have a better society for all.