The Bible verse that can actually change the world

By Kalungi Kabuye

My friend Jimmy is not an overtly very religious person, he does not always announce when he goes to church or what Jesus has done in his life.

I’m sure he is a Christian, but he does not make much out of it, so I was surprised when a few weeks ago he posted a long Bible verse on his Facebook page.

The verse he posted was from the gospel of Mathew (6: 1-16), and partly reads: "Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do.”

Taken from the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is quoted to go on and say that those that make a big deal out of giving to the needy; and those that “love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them”, are in trouble because they will not get any rewards for their actions.

This made me think, what would happen if everyone in the world, all 7 billion of us, took this to heart?

What if everyone that has lived on this earth since all those years ago when Jesus said those words had acted like he preached? Wouldn’t the world be a very different place?

For one, there would be no religions, and thus no basis for discrimination based on faith. Many of the major wars and conflicts in the last two thousand years or so have their foundation in religions that have evolved since the time of Jesus. Nobody would have needed to die if everybody had done their praying privately.

The biggest crisis we have now in the Middle East would not have happened, because there would be no forced conversion from one religion to another.

There would be no religious sects fighting against another like is happening today, and no killing in the name of God. And Al-Qaeda or Boko Haram would have never happened, of course.

If everyone talked to their God privately (and this is probably why Jimmy put up that quote), there would be no loud-mouthed pastor shouting at the top of his voice into a microphone in the middle of the night.

And another colleague Susan would not have to move house again to find some peace. And that guy from the mosque across the valley would not be waking me up every morning at 5am.

Think about it, you will not have to be asked to donate money so a pastor can put up a billion-shilling house to pray from.

You just tell them that a quiet corner of your bedroom would do very well, thank you very much. Or collect money so the pastor can buy a $100,000 monster of a car to visit his ‘flock’; there would be no flock, so no need for a shepherd.
 
If everyone had listened to Jesus, we would be talking straight to God, so no need for interpretation, guidance, or intervention. God would be on everybody’s speed dial, so to speak.

But it is not too late, we can all start now. This Sunday, let us not post any stuff on Facebook how that preacher gave a mean sermon, so everyone will know how you went to church, even if you did not.

The pastors and preachers should spend about two minutes on the pulpits, and tell everybody to go home and commune with God. No, they do not want your money, go feed your family instead or buy your wife some new shoes.

And the Muslim guy doing the azaan from the mosque will just be calling everybody to live together, and for the guys of the Islamic State to stop killing everybody else who does not pray like they do.

It is only one verse out of millions of others that have been written but if taken to heart it can really change the world.