TEACHERS TALKING
Talk 2 – Love Your Neighbour as Yourself
The movie ‘Frozen’ captivated the imaginations of many of our students who sang or hummed along with the theme song. Anna has been told that an act of true love will save her when she is turning to ice. For only true love can thaw a frozen heart. Expecting a kiss from her fiancé, Hans, to be that expression of love, she is horrified to find he is a self‑centred villain out to achieve his own ends. She sees him about to murder her sister Elsa, and in that moment, she must save herself or save Elsa. As Hans’ sword falls, Anna who sacrifices herself to save Elsa, turns to ice. When Elsa weeps over her sister’s frozen body, Anna thaws. The act of true love was not a romantic kiss from Hans, but Anna’s self‑sacrificing act of love given to save her sister that thawed her frozen body. This scene in the picture gives deep insight into the true nature of love. It looks like Jesus, who gave Himself for us, not counting the cost nor scorning its shame. He was secure in the knowledge of His Father’s love and the mission He came to fulfil which was an act of love.
Each teacher and student who enters our schools is a unique image‑bearer and this is an affirmation of their inherent worth and dignity. Their identity is a gift, not an achievement or a construction. As a teacher, loved unconditionally by God, my identity is found in ‘Whose I am’, a child of God and this sets me free to love staff and students. Other teachers do not become competitors or threats, but are seen as brothers and sisters in Christ, called to serve one another. Only where we claim our God-made selves as the true source of our being and own when we sin and mess up, will we know the grace of God to forgive those who have wounded or hurt us. Likewise, as we assist students to grow increasingly secure in the love of Christ, they can reach out to others to love them as people rather than focus on their own needs and how to use others to meet them.
In school communities, where life can be messy and difficult, it is important to love our colleagues. This outworks itself in myriads of ways; owning our sins and failures, forgiving one another, keeping short accounts, encouragement, praying for each other, refusing to participate in gossip, resolving conflict well and sharing the workload where needed. We are visibly expressing to our students that because we are made in the image of God, this pattern of sacrificial love that reflects the love of Jesus, fulfils our nature and enables us to experience life in a richer way. This is the affirmation of one’s true identity, for to live a self‑centred life is the denial of our true nature. For personhood is not in isolation but is always about relationships, as they are central to what it means to be human. “Human beings are called to reproduce on earth the mutual love that the Trinity lives in, in heaven.” [1]
How can teachers nurture a culture where the culture reflects love for one’s neighbour? In what ways is this counter‑cultural? When training a group of African teachers considering this in their own situation, they commented that both the boys and girls have equal responsibility to share the ‘clean‑up’ responsibilities in the classrooms of their school. This is counter‑cultural, where women are mainly responsible for housework chores and boys see it as below their dignity to do it.
Do we teach fulfilling responsibility from K-12 in the framework of ‘love thy neighbour’? In our culture there is generally a lack of respect in the way people speak to one another. Do we correct students when they speak disrespectfully to us or to one another? When students litter the playground, do we let them know that it is not appropriate to treat the grounds person as someone who can just clean‑up after them?
By structuring class interactions, such as placing a gifted student in an area of learning next to a student who is struggling, this sends a message that student’s gifts are given to them not to be in competition with others, but to love their neighbour through service. For the way we teach and learn is a major embodiment of a culture’s way of life.
When the surrounding culture focuses on expressive individualism and the society is losing its connective glue, the Christian school has a wonderful God‑given opportunity to forge life‑giving relationships in a community in “which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages that are already upon us.” [2] God’s moral purpose for the individual will be outworking in the common good for their lives together. May the Lord richly bless you as you live out the life‑affirming reality of “loving your neighbour as yourself”.
“By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13: 35).
Grace & Peace
The Excellence Team
[1] Nancy R. Pearcey. Love Thy Body – Answering Hard Questions about Life & Sexuality, Baker Books, 2018), 259
[2] Nancy R. Pearcey