“Do Unto Others” Study Guide: The Universal Experience of Fear
Week 2: Fear – The Universal Experience of Fear
“Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” that rule we were all taught as kids, sounds like such a simple principle to follow. But if most people pledge allegiance to that rule, why does it seem like we live in a society marked by spiteful division? Why do we struggle so much with loving our neighbors? As we move through the Do Unto Others Kindness Campaign, we’ll live into an intentional season of growing in kindness towards our neighbors. Our hope is that, through this campaign, we’re sending a message to our community that kindness is the most important behavior we can exhibit as we seek to de-polarize our communities and love our neighbors. Use this four-week study guide to explore the scriptural call to bless others, examining the Bible’s rich meaning behind the simple rule and how to model it in our day-to-day lives.
Focus Scripture: Leviticus 19:33-37
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for the hope and confidence you bring to our lives. We feel afraid as we look at the world around us, and we ask that you would bring peace. Embolden us to move beyond fear and to show your love to those around us, and forgive us for the times in which our fear has caused us to act unkindly. Amen.
Lesson: Last week, we looked at the environment of chaos in which Abraham and Sarah were called to bless those around them. Communities were responding to the collapse of a dynasty by self-isolating and fighting for the rights to scarce resources. In this session, we are going to consider further the fear that creates such isolation and fighting. In order to do so, we must first talk about anxiety.
Anxiety, technically speaking, is our bodies’ response to real or perceived danger. Those words, real or perceived, are important. Our bodies respond to danger by pumping adrenaline into our system, activating the “fight or flight” response. This process is normal and good. For example, if a man were to encounter a bear on a hike, it is a good thing that his body would respond with adrenaline. Meeting a bear should give him anxiety – it can keep him alive.
The problem for us, though, is that our body responds to perceived danger in the exact same way. As we encounter something that may not actually be dangerous, our brains can tell us that it really is dangerous. We meet a stranger who is just a normal person, but our bodies react with anxiety. We stand up to speak in front of a room of colleagues and feel cold sweat on our brows. Those situations may not actually be dangerous, but when that process is activated, adrenaline flows. Our heart rates increase, we may sweat, shake, or panic. Unlike the response to true danger, this kind of anxiety stemming from perceived danger is unhelpful and can lead to all sorts of problems.
For all of human history, one of the primary “triggers” that causes this adrenaline response is encountering difference. Our brains stay calm when patterns stay the same. When we spend time with the same people, participate in predictable social norms, adhere to familiar beliefs, and go to the same places, our brains do not protest. But when change comes to our lives, dangerous or not, anxiety is triggered. Depending on the scale of the change, we either work through it or we don’t. We step up and grow, or we shrink back in fear.
One way this shows up is in our relationships with other cultures. We humans have historically struggled to interact with people who are different than the people in the culture in which we grew up. Our brains have responded to differences in race and culture with that adrenaline response of anxiety. In the ancient world, it could be true at times that encountering other people groups was a danger, as the threat of violence was real due to fights over land. Of course, this threat was not universally true. Not every foreigner brought violence. Nevertheless, fear of others has always been a universal human experience.
It is interesting that the Old Testament law codes made so many demands upon the Israelites, God’s people, to practice compassion to foreigners. While taking threats of violence seriously in their ancient context, the Israelites nevertheless understood that God called them to care for people outside their cultural boundaries. In Leviticus (a book of the Bible containing part of the Old Testament law codes), God’s people were commanded to love immigrants just as they loved themselves (19:34). They were commanded, at harvest time, not to harvest all the way to the edge of their fields, but to leave those crops for the immigrants among them (23:22). And while they oftentimes failed – at times, horrifically – the call was to treat others how they wanted to be treated themselves. Why? In the Old Testament, that command is rooted in a simple reminder: the Israelites were themselves once foreigners in the land of Egypt, but God had compassion on them. They were therefore called to extend God’s compassion to others.
Anxiety is a normal response when we meet those who are different than us. It always has been. The question for the Israelites back then – and for us today – is if that anxiety is stemming from real or perceived danger. God’s call upon the Israelites was for them to trust that not every person who was different was a real danger to them. In fact, some of the most important people in the Old Testament were foreigners who made a redemptive impact: Rahab, Ruth, and Balaam. For the Israelites to respond to God’s call, they would have to work through the anxiety they felt and extend love to people who were different but not dangerous. Or, they would have to work through their anxiety and love people who really could have been dangerous, allowing their love to disarm their enemies’ danger.
In our world today, much of our hatred and division stems back to the fundamental human fear: difference. People in our society feel anxiety due to increasing awareness of other cultures, growth of minority populations, contrasting political views, and loss of religious influence. Even if there is an example of violence resulting from a person who looks different, people can unhealthily extend that fear to every person who looks different. But our discipleship journey asks us to reflect over whether those differences are real or perceived danger. In other words, is the anxiety we feel helpful or unhelpful? What do we really have to fear by loving others the way we want to be loved? What is the actual danger there? When we step out and form relationships with people who are different, we may find more commonality than we thought possible.
Jesus calls us to show the world his radical love. Perhaps we can all agree on that. But we would do well to remember that doing so may cause some very normal anxiety and fear. Deciding what to do with that anxiety is crucial. Will we respond with fear-driven anger, or will we ask Jesus to help us love better? To do unto others as we would have them do to us takes this kind of Spirit-filled discernment and a willingness to open ourselves up to fear, and yes, even anxiety.
Questions to Consider:
When you consider the bitterness so prevalent in our society, what role do you think fear plays in how people talk and act?
What in our culture brings you fear? Is it real, perceived, or both?
What is a time in your life in which you worked through great fear? What did that teach you, and what can it teach you today?
God frequently reminds the Israelites that they were once foreigners in Egypt, and that they should therefore treat foreigners with compassion. Who are the people today especially in need of compassion?
What are some things you could do to extend compassion to those you noted in the last question?
*This study guide was adapted from Cultivating Kindness through Scripture and Community: A Four-Week “Do Unto Others” Study for Adult Small Groups