Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
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In my case I take comfort in the word of God, and try to minister from it, to whomever my neighbour may be. Others, obviously, may be led to minister in more formal, structured organizational environments. Like SC in his church, f'rinstance. Some of us may occasionally feel like John on Patmos, gazing back "in spirit, on the Lord's Day", at the churches on the mainland. We're now physically removed, but something inside keeps us connected.
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I liked your post overall. But this part caused a question in me. What is loving your neighbor as yourself? What you mention here is potentially only a part of what you think would encompass that command. But it is not stated in that way.
I note that there are a lot of people that think of loving their neighbor only in terms of how they share the Word with them, preach the gospel to them, help them become more Christ-like, etc. I am constantly baffled at how many good Christians will only engage in "social" activities if there is the opportunity to share the gospel or talk about Christ. If that is not an option, they are not interested.
But it would seem that giving food to one of the "least of these" is part of loving neighbor. And Jesus didn't say that you should feed them and teach them some good teachings. Just feed them.
So why, when the discussion turns to loving your neighbor as yourself, does our talk turn to preaching the gospel or sharing the Word? Seems that the command to "justice" is about food, shelter, and righteous interactions, not preaching and teaching. And surely the command to justice is a significant part of loving your neighbor as yourself.
This is probably the reason that evangelicals so often do not seem to think that being righteous is more important than relying on grace to continually cover their shortcomings. They think that how they live is unimportant in the grand scheme of things. They think that their testimony is mainly in the speaking of un-seeable events rather than in living visibly in a manner that is not like the "nations." They think that the way they actually live is irrelevant to their testimony. They think that the fact they can claim to have Christ in their lives and get great enjoyment from it, and feel free from their sins (even the ones they keep on doing) is attractive to people who otherwise don't care. People don't want to just feel better about themselves. They want to actually be better. But we are teaching ourselves that you don't have to be better. Just keep on relying on grace (which does work) and feel better about yourself. Not a whole lot different from some of the superiority shtick that the LCM taught us.