RE: [TruthTalk] Love your neighbor as yourself

[ShieldsFamily]

Slade, You have it exactly right.  Love is how we BEHAVE (NOT how we FEEL).  And sometimes love demands NOT rewarding bad behavior (just as the Lord treats us, mind you.)   I think we all basically agree that we are to treat others with kindness.  We just speak in different vocabularies.  We are to offer a cup of water, or a helpful hand, whenever it is asked.  We are to turn the other cheek when rebuffed or insulted.  That does NOT mean that we are to become intimate with anyone or everyone. I am very choosey about who I fellowship with intimately. (For what fellowship has light with darkness?)   However, I am always on the lookout for ways to offer a kindness to my neighbors in hopes of opening up opportunities for friendship that might turn into an opportunity to be “Jesus with skin on” to that person. The tricky thing here is that people who live in darkness are repulsed by the light.  So a lot of times you get nowhere.  It doesn’t mean you give up.  One day they might just let the fence down an inch. Now and then they do. J   Izzy From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Slade Henson Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 7:31 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] Love your neighbor as yourself   BT SAID -- I do not know how I would get along with [Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer]. They may not be receptive to getting along. Still I do know this: no matter who moves next door, Jesus' commandment will not change. I am to love them the way I love myself -- or put another way, treat them the way I would like to be treated.   SLADE SAYS: The act of "loving" from Leviticus (which is quoted by Yeshua in his famous "love your neighbor" sermon) has nothing to do with warm fuzzies. Hebrew is a culture and a language of action... not of essence. We are commanded to LOVE which means we are commanded to ACT. I would ACT by speaking civilly to them, by helping them if they are ever doing something that looks like a second pair of hands would make the job a bit easier, or by opening up my home if they ever came a-knocking.