The Cooperation Imperative

Paul helps us understand how following the example of Jesus means cooperation and collaboration.

Picture an experiment in which a couple of 3-year-olds face a challenge. They pull together on some ropes, and the result is a flood of gummy bears raining down. They are delighted by the candy treats.

But what happens when one gets more than the other?

A meltdown, a tantrum or a fight?

No. Surprisingly, they tend to make adjustments to arrive at an equitable distribution. If one points out that she is deprived of gummies, the other quickly corrects the imbalance.

A number of studies are pointing to the same conclusion: Human beings have a desire to cooperate. Despite what you see in halls of power around the world, people have an inborn desire to work jointly toward the same end.

Duke professor Michael Tomasello is an expert in this field, and he says that his research is revealing that “we want to cooperate because it’s mutually beneficial to do so. But we also want to cooperate because we want to distribute the spoils of our joint effort fairly, because we ought...