January 02, 2013
First Do No Harm
The Hippocratic Oath is often credited for the phrase “first do no harm”,
but the essence of the phrase is actually found in the Hippocratic Corpus. Normally
the sentiment is applied to the medical field and the physical body, but I’m wondering
if it might also be applicable to the spiritual well being of fellow believers and
our interaction with one another. “We who
are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please
ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to
build him up.” (Ro 15:1-2 NIV)
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Gail;
-----God bless you. “First do no harm” is the negative statement of my philosophical definition for love. Upon seeking one simple statement which would carry the basic idea of all love without loosing its congruency in the face of any complexity, I settled upon the concept that love was purely the benefit to everything touched by its action. No detriment, only benefit. That statement made amongst us who are fraught with misgivings, errors, and lack of knowledge demands explanation of the term “benefit”. I believe no man is able to perfectly supply its definition. So the one doing the love and the one receiving it most likely will not agree to the Nth degree upon exactly what might really be beneficial. Then for love to be practiced, the differences between one another must be worked out as far as is possible, and the rest which won’t work out must be considered tolerable.
-----So we proceed to love one another imperfectly, yet resolutely. In this resolution are the latitudes which one who knows better must give to another who does not or will not know better. When benefiting in a situation can not happen without also causing some detriment, we can not choose to simply not benefit anything. We must benefit what is more important and lament the detriment to what is less. Paul shows that building up the other person sits on top of the priority list, even above maintaining some moral pinnacle about which we perceive ourselves. Therefore the attitude of the stronger must always first concern the building up of the weaker. I find the Hippocratic Oath to be fundamentally applicable to our interactions with each other precisely because everything we do to one degree or another effects somebody else’s physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual well being. Simply because we are in no way perfect is no license to be detrimental in life, nor to be even non-participatory.
-----Then I find the inverse perspective of its statement to actually be the substance of our new life. We are not called merely to first avoid having detrimental effects upon things. We are called to first be beneficial in every situation. We are to be builders by our effects. So in a way maybe a bit stretched, we are each other’s physicians. The oath applies, and then some.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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