If a leader has a special gift, it is the ability to sense the purpose in others. So truly inspirational leadership is not really selling people some science fiction future. Rather, it is showing people how the vision can directly benefit them, how their specific needs can be satisfied. It is like holding up a mirror and reflecting back to them what they said that they most desire. When they see the reflection, they recognize it and are immediately attracted to it. I suppose people have to reached the point at which the obstacles in the way of their preservation in the state of nature show their power of resistance to be greater than the resources at the disposal of each individual for one’s maintenance in that state. That primitive condition can then subsist no longer; and the human race would perish unless it changed its manner of existence. However, as humans cannot engender new forces, but only unite and direct existing ones, they have no other means of preserving themselves than the formation, by aggregation, of a sum of forces great enough to overcome the resistance. These they have to being into play by means of single motive power, and cause to act in concert. This sum of forces can arise only where several persons come together: but, as the force and liberty of each person are the chief instruments of one’s self-preservation, how can one pledge them without harming one’s own interests, and neglecting the care one owes to oneself? #RandolphHarris 1 of 16

This difficulty, in its bearing on my present subject, may be stated in the following terms—the problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting oneself with all, may still obey oneself alone, and remain as free as before. This is the fundamental problem of which the Social Contract provides the solution. The clauses of this contract are so determined by the nature of the act that the slightest modification would make them vain and ineffective; so that, although they have perhaps never been formally set forth, they are everywhere the same and everywhere tacitly admitted and recognized, until, on the violation of the social compact, each regains one’s original rights and resumes one’s natural liberty, while losing the conventional liberty in favour of which one renounced it. These clauses, properly understood, may be reduced to one—the total alienation of each associate, together with all one’s rights, to the whole community, for in the first place, as each gives oneself absolutely, the conditions are the same for all; and, this being so, no one has any interest in making them burdensome to others. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16

Moreover, the alienation being without reserve, the union is as perfect as it can be, and no associate has anything more to demand: for, if the individuals retained certain rights, as there would be no common superior to decide between them and the public, each, being on one point one’s own judge, would ask to be so on all; the state of nature would thus continue, and the association would necessarily become inoperative or tyrannical. Finally, each human, in giving oneself to all, gives oneself to nobody; and as there is no associate over whom one does not acquire the same right as one yields others over oneself, one gains an equivalent for everything one loses, and an increase of force for the preservation of what one has. If then we discard from the social compact what is not of its essence, we shall find that it reduces itself to the following terms—each of us puts one’s person and all one’s power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole. At once, in place of the individual personality of each contracting party, this act of association creates a moral and collective body, composed of as many members as the assembly contains votes, and receiving from this act its unity, its common identity, its life and its will. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16

This public person, so formed by the union of all other person, formerly took the name of city, and now takes that of Republic or body politic; it is called by members State when passive, Sovereign when active, and Power when compared with others like itself. Those who are associated in it take collectively the name of people, and severally are called citizens, as sharing in the sovereign power, and subjects, as being under the laws of the State. However, these terms are often confused and taken one for another: it is enough to know how to distinguish them when they are being used with precision. This formula shows us that the act of association comprises a mutual undertaking between the public and the individuals, and that each individual, in making a contact, as we may say, with oneself, is bound in a double capacity; as a member of the Sovereign one is bound to the individuals, and as a member of the State to the Sovereign. However, the maxim of civil right, that no one is bound by undertakings made to oneself, does not apply in this case; for there is a great difference between incurring an obligation to yourself and incurring one to a whole of which you form a part. Attention must further be called to the fact that public deliberation, while competent to bind all the subjects to the Sovereign, because of the two different capacities in which each of them may be regarded, cannot, for the opposite reason, bind the Sovereign to itself; and that it is consequently against the nature of the body politic for the Sovereign to impose on itself a law which it cannot infringe. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16

Being able to regard itself in only one capacity, it is in the position of an individual who makes a contract with oneself; and this makes it clear that there neither is nor can be any kind of fundamental law binding on the body of the people—not even the social contract itself. This does not mean that the body politic cannot enter into undertakings with others, provided the contract is not infringed by them; for in relation to what is external to it, it becomes a simple being, an individual. However, the body politic or the Sovereign, drawing its being wholly from the sanctity of the contact, can never bind itself, even to an outsider, to do anything derogator to the original act, for instance, to alienate any part of itself, or to submit to another Sovereign. Violation of the act by which it exists would be self-annihilation; and that which is itself nothing can create nothing. As soon as this multitude is so united in one body, it is impossible to offend again one of the members resenting it. Duty and interest therefore equally oblige the two contracting parties to give each other help; and the same people should seek to combine, in their double capacity, all the advantages dependent upon that capacity. Again, the Sovereign, being formed wholly of the individuals who compose it, neither has nor can have any interest contrary to theirs; and consequently the sovereign power need give no guarantee to its subjects, because it is impossible for the body to wish to hurt all its members. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16

We shall also see later on that it cannot hurt any in particular. The Sovereign, merely by virtue of what it is, is always what it should be. This, however, is not the case with the relation of the subjects to the Sovereign, which, despite the common interest, would have no security that they would fulfill their undertakings, unless it found means to assure itself of their fidelity. In fact, each individual, as a human, may have a particular interest may speak to one quite differently from the common interest: one’s absolute and naturally independent existence may make one look upon what one owes to the common cause as a gratuitous contribution, the loss of which will do less harm to others than the payment of it is burdensome to oneself; and, regarding the moral person which constitutes the State as a persona ficta, because not a person, one may wish to enjoy the rights of citizenship without being ready to fulfill the duties of a subject. The continuance of such an injustice could not but prove the undoing of the body politic. In order then that the social compact may not be an empty formula, it tacitly includes the undertaking, which alone can give force to the rest, that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than that one will be forced to be free for this is the condition which, by giving each citizen to one’s country, secures one against all personal dependence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16

In this is possessed the key to the working of the political machine; this alone legitimizes civil undertakings, which, without it, would be absurd, tyrannical, and liable to the most frightful abuses. So much, then, for a sketch of insights into the problem of aggression in human life. As I said, insights like these seemed to me to cover the problem, yet something vital was always left unsaid. It was not until I confronted the work of Rank, and then Brown, that the gap could be filled. Now I think the matter can be pushed to a comprehensive conclusion, that we have a general theory of human evil. Evil is caused by all the things we have outlined, plus the one thing they have left out, the driving impetus that underlies them all: human’s hunger for righteous self-expansion and perpetuation. No wonder it has taken us so long to pull all the fragmentary insights together, to join the views of both sides on the nature of humans. The greatest cause of evil included all human motives in one giant paradox. Good and bad were so inextricably mixed that we could no make them out; bad seemed to lead to good, and good motives led to bad. The paradox is that evil comes from human’s urge to heroic victory over evil. The evil the troubles humans most is one’s vulnerability; one seems impotent to guarantee the absolute meaning of one’s life, its significance in the cosmos. One assures a plenitude of evil, then, by trying to make closure on one’s cosmic heroism in this life and this World. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16

All intolerable sufferings of humankind result from human’s attempt to make the whole World of nature reflect one’s reality, one’s heroic victory; one thus tries to achieve a perfection on Earth, a visible testimonial to one’s cosmic importance; but this testimonial can only be given conclusively by the beyond, by the source of creation itself which alone knows human’s value because it knows one’s task, the meaning of one’s life; humans have confused two spheres, the visible and whatever is beyond, and this blindness has permitted them to undertake the impossible—to extent the values of one’s limited visible sphere over all the rest of creation, whatever forms it may take. The tragic evils of history, then, are a commensurate result of a blindness and impossibility of such magnitude. Humans are a robustly active creature; activity alone keeps them from going crazy. If one bogs down and begins to dwell on one’s situation, one risks releasing the neurotic fear repressed into one’s unconscious—that one is really important and will have no effect on the World. So one frantically drives oneself to see one’s effects, to convince oneself and others that one really counts. This alone is enough to cause evil all by itself: an energetic organism with personal anxieties about one’s powers. Where is human energy directed if not at objects—human objects most of the time? #RandolphHarris 8 of 16

In other words, humans must take out one’s personal problems on a transference object in one way or another; as psychiatrists not put it, human’s whole life is a series of “games” enmeshing oneself with others, reflexively and drivenly for the most part, and according to some scenario of power. As long as we are not assured of immortality, we shall never be fulfilled, we shall go on hating each other in spite of our need for mutual love. The most general statement we could make is that at the very least each person “appropriates” the other in some way so as to perpetuate oneself. In this sense, “styles of life,” are styles of appropriation of other to secure one’s righteous self-perpetuation. We might say that there is a natural and built-in evil in social life because all interaction is mutual appropriation. We saw a direct example of this in the relation of the leader to the group. Gurus feed on disciples while the disciples are incorporating them; social life seems at times like a science-fiction horror story, with everyone mutually gobbling each other like human pigs. We often do not make the gospel good enough. We preach grace to the non-Christian and duty to the Christian. It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace for if you are not a Christian, but when you become a Christian then there are all sorts of laws you must obey and you feel like you were better off before you were converted. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16

Even our terminology betrays the way we dichotomize the Christian life into “grace” and “works” compartments. We speak of the gift of salvation and the cost of discipleship. The “cost of discipleship” is not necessarily an unbiblical expression, but the connotation we build into it is. We often convey the idea that God’s grace barely gets us inside the door of the Kingdom, and after that, it is all our own blood, sweat, and tears. How did the apostle Paul approach the subject of commitment and discipline? Let us look again at Romans 12.1. Paul’s letter to the Romans is the foundation for the Bible’s teaching on salvation. In that letter the teaching of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone is set forth most cogently and completely. However, Paul wrote the letter to people who were already believers. He referred to them as those who are loved by God and called to be saints. He thanked God that their “faith is being reported all over the World,” and longed that they and he “may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith,” reports Romans 1.7-8,12. Clearly he was writing to believers. Paul wrote this letter to help them understand more fully the salvation they already possessed. He spent eleven chapters going through the gospel, showing that salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ and then dealing with various questions his teaching on the grace of God would rise. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16

Not until Paul had spent eleven chapters teaching the gospel of the grace of God to people who were already believers did he ask for a response from them: a total commitment of themselves to God. He urged them, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,” reports Romans 12.1. What it means to offer your bodies is to make a decisive dedication of your bodies. The phrase living sacrifices, though, connotes the idea of a perpetual sacrifice never to be neglected or recalled and a constant dedication. So Paul called for a decisive, once for all dedication that is to be constantly reaffirmed and kindled afresh. You cannot ask for any higher level of commitment than that. What consideration did Paul bring forward as the basis or motivation for making such a total commitment? He did not appeal to a sense of duty but to the mercy of God (in view of God’s mercy”). He asked for a response based not on obligation but on heartfelt gratitude. Now, the fact is we do have a duty and obligation to God. He is the Sovereign Ruler of this World, and in that capacity, He has “laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed,” reports Psalm 119.4. However, He motivates us to obedience, not on the basis of His sovereign rule, but on the basis of His mercy to us in Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16

A lawdriver insists with threats and penalties; a preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to us; for one wants no unwilling works and reluctant services, one wants joyful and delightful services of God. I was asked to speak on the “Lordship of Jesus Christ” at a conference. I knew the intended objective was to challenge the audience to submit to Christ’s lordship in the affairs of their everyday lives. However, I began the message by speaking on God’s goodness. After I had spent fifteen or twenty minutes on the goodness of God, then I began to talk about the lordship of Christ in our lives. Why did I develop the message in that fashion? Because submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ should be in response to the love and mercy of God. In view of God’s mercy, Paul argues the Roman believers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices. We must respond with a similar motivation to His lordship in our lives today. Our motivation for commitment, discipline, and obedience is as important to God, perhaps even more so, than our performance. The Law’s demands are inward, touching motive and desire, and are not concerned solely with outward action. David said to Solomon, “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understand every motive behind the thoughts,” reports 1 Chronicles 28.9. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16

God will expose the motives of human’s hearts. God searches the heart and understand every motive. To be acceptable to Him, our motives must spring from a love for Him and a desire to glorify Him. Obedience to God is performed from a legalistic motive—that is, a fear of the consequences or to gain favour with God—is not pleasing to God. To constitute a work truly good, it must be done from a right principle, performed by a right rile, and intended for a right end. A right principle is the love of God, that is, our love for God. The right rule is God’s revealed will as contained in Scripture. The right end—or as we would say today, the right goal—is the glory of God. Thus, our good works are not truly good unless they are motivated by a love for God and a desire to glorify Him. However, we cannot have such a God-ward motivation if we think we must earn God’s favour by our obedience, or if we fear we may forfeit God’s favour by our disobedience. Such a works-oriented motivation is essentially self-serving; it is prompted more by what we think we can gain or lose from God than by a grateful response to he grace He has already given us through Jesus Christ. Living under the grace of God instead of under a sense of duty frees us from such a self-serving motivation. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16

Living under the grace of God also frees us to obey God and serve Him as a loving and thankful response to Him for our salvation and for blessings already guaranteed to us by His grace. Consequently, a heartfelt grasp of God’s grace—far from creating an indifferent or careless attitude in us—will actually provide us the only motivation that is pleasing to Him. Only when we are thoroughly convinced that the Christian life is entirely of grace are we able to serve Him out of a grateful and loving heart. When we think of the Scriptural command to practice hospitality, we reflexively imagine a feminine mandate—“This is something my wife should excel at, or my mother, or my daughter. Women, hear God’s Word!” And they do, much to their souls’ benefit. However, the command is for both genders. Men, you ought to take the initiative in practicing hospitality (see 1 Peter 4.9), whether you are single or married. If you do, you will not only begin to build friendships, but may even host some “Angels without knowing it,” reports Hebrews 13.2. If we are to be all God wants us to be, we must set ourselves against the cultural consensus and pursue and practice friendship. We need to put some holy sweat into our relationships, resist the lure of our architecture with its moats, drawbridges, and descending doors, and overcome the technology of autonomy—the isolating lure of our televisions and smartphones. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16

Most of all, we must overcome our privatized hearts—for Christianity is a relationship with God and His people. God’s truth is most effectively learned and lived in relationships. Friendships hold the promise of grace! List those whom you consider good or close friends. After each name, tell why you see that person as a friend. Then summarize what you are looking for in friends and why you value such relationships. O eternal Son, Who abides for ever, Consubstantial with the Father, equal to Him as enthroned and as Creator; Thou, without being changed, didst assume our flesh, and being made Man, like unto us in all but sin, wast made our Mediator with the Father. Thou hast broken down the partition wall, and hast reconciled the Earthly with the Heavenly, and made of twain one, by Thine Incarnation. Thou sadist to Thy holy Apostles and disciples, “My peace I give unto you;” grant us now that peace, O Lord. “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things,” reports Moroni 9.4-5. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16

Glorious God, I bless thee that I know thee, I once lived in the World, but was ignorant of its creator, was partaker of thy providences, but knew not the provider, was blind while enjoying the Sunlight, was deaf to all things spiritual, with voices all around me, understood many things, but had no knowledge of thy ways, saw the World, but did not see Jesus only. O happy day, when in Thy love’s sovereignty Thou didst look on me, and call me by grace. Then did the dead heart begin to beat, the darkened eye glimmer with light, the dull ear catch Thy echo, and I turned to thee and found thee, a God ready to hear, willing to save. Then did I find my heart at enmity to thee, vexing Thy Spirit; then did I fall at Thy feet and hear Thee thunder, “The soul that sinneth, it must die,” but when grace made me to know Thee, and admire a God who hated sin, Thy terrible justice held my will submissive. My thoughts were then as knives cutting my head. Then didst Thou come to me in silken robes of love, and I saw Thy Son dying that I might live, and in that death I found my all. My soul doth sing at the remembrance of that peace; the gospel cornet brought a sound unknown to me before that reached my heart—and I lived—never to lose my hold on Christ or His hold on me. Grant that I may always weep to the praise of mercy found, and tell to others as long as I live, that Thou art a sin-pardoning God, taking up the blasphemer and the ungodly, and washing them from their deepest stain. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16

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