Matthew 22:36-40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Alexis de Tocqueville recognized America as a unique nation that had placed these Biblical priorities into action. Nineteenth Century Americans were motived by their love of God so that they loved others. They used their freedoms to develop community not contention. They used their freedoms to extend a hand of help instead of grasping for personal excess. They used their freedoms to build institutions instead of destroying them.
“In the United States, therefore, it was never intended for a man in a free country to have the right to do anything he liked; rather, social duties were imposed upon him more various than anywhere else.”
“I must say that I have seen Americans making great and sincere sacrifices for the common good and a hundred times I have noticed that, when needs be, they almost always gave each other faithful support.”
The America so admired by de Tocqueville was the result of Christian principles that guided priorities away from selfishness and towards the Supreme and society. These priorities manifested themselves in a nation that was a model for others to follow. PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD PROPERLY PRIORITIZE GOD AND OTHERS OVER OURSELVES. Faithful support of others and sincere sacrifices, as a part of our social duties, can produce the common good for our nation that we so desperately need.