Receive Blessings for Your Social Intelligence (Matthew 18:15-20)

A man came to the village chief to complain about his brother, saying, “Chief, I am about to kill my brother because he has offended me seriously. I can’t tolerate him anymore. I know if I kill him, you will put me in prison. What should I do?”

The chief looked at him carefully to find out who this young man was, “Oh, I remember who you are. You are the young man who was almost killed by the wolf a while back. Am I right?” He said, “Yes.”

“Please tell me about the incident,” the chief asked. “Well, I returned to the village from work and discovered a vicious wolf followed me. So, I ran and quickly climbed up a tree. I had to stay up on the tree all night until the wolf eventually left in the morning.”

“Really?” the chief exclaimed, “What did you do to the wolf after that? Did you try to hunt for and kill it?” the chief asked. “No, I didn’t do anything. I’m just glad that it didn’t kill me.”

“Interesting,” the chief thought, “The wolf tried to kill you, but you don’t seem to be as angry as when your brother offended you.”

The man stayed silent for a moment and felt enlightened and left. (End of the story.)

That is another parable by Zhuagzi. The story doesn’t reveal the conclusion because it is for you to figure out the hidden wisdom. What would you do if you were in that situation?

The truth is sometimes we treat animals better than humans. We seem more patient with wild animals than our brothers and sisters, maybe because we expect more from humans.

The story stimulates a realization that we have better choices than revenge. With some effort, we can tame the wildest animals, even huge elephants. In the same way, with some social intelligence, God expects us to create harmony with fellow humans.

We live in a fallen world and must deal with fallen people. Human relationship is always messy. But God wants us to bring harmony out of the mess, just as God brought order from the chaos as described in Genesis. It’s called social intelligence or relational intelligence.

God created us in His image. When we bring order out of chaos, we exercise in God’s image and make God happy. The human mission is to create order out of chaos, and God promises to reward us abundantly when we attain and maintain harmony with one another. King David wrote:

See how good and pleasant it is
when brothers and sisters live together in harmony! 

That is where the LORD promised
the blessing of eternal life. (Ps 133:1,3b GW).

Jesus also said,

Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Mt 18:19–20).

That means if you can figure out how to live in harmony with fellow human beings, you will be blessed with a ticket to eternity, your prayers will be answered, and you will experience the presence of God. In other words, you will find fulfillment if you exercise social intelligence.

So, today, we will look at how to develop social intelligence through Jesus’ teaching based on this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!