Bible talk

[Gori the Grey]

I suppose you could say he is making a choice as to whether he is a neighbour

I've been trying to cast that as the core issue addressed by the story (since it's the question the lawyer asks that gets it all started): Who is my neighbor?

If you have some grounds for excluding a particular person from that group, then you wouldn't be divinely obligated to care for them, right?

 

[Samson]

I've been trying to cast that as the core issue addressed by the story (since it's the question the lawyer asks that gets it all started): Who is my neighbor?

If you have some grounds for excluding a particular person from that group, then you wouldn't be divinely obligated to care for them, right?

As long as God agrees about excluding them. I do not think the sky pilot and bureaucrat excluded themselves from the group by either Jesus or the lawyers view.

 

[Sommerswerd]

ThaaaaaaaANK you, Farm Boy!

I'll count that as 13 of the "duh"s that I was dreaming I'd receive.

By the way @Samson, after you logged off, others took up the attempt to answer the question I was putting to you. @Farm Boy eventually gave it in the form I was looking for (with an assist from @Kyriakos).

After I get enough people in the audience to shout "duh," it'll be back to you and me.

And I'm about ready to answer your question.

Duh! for sure

Sorry, I fell behind...

Also FTR I would have been off on the first question, because my one word answer would have been "helped" not "approached".

It underscores the notion that if the goal is to love "everyone"... you can't love "everyone" unless you can start with the person right next to you. If you can find an excuse/reason to skip over the person nearest you, you can't possibly love "everyone".

The other principle present is "love" as a verb. The Good Samaritan's love was active, it was action. It wasn't limited to a feeling, it was manifested in an act of love, the verb "to love", to willingly and unconditionally, place the care, needs, wellbeing etc., of another, over one's own.

 

[Farm Boy]

limited to a feeling

Toxic care.

Hell on earth.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Toxic care.

Hell on earth.

"Thoughts and prayers"

"Let me know if you need anything... what's that?... oh... I'm busy that day, sorry!"

 

[Farm Boy]

There are those who turn thoughts and prayers into works. If I'm being in a better state, for a moment. An accord with the divine must start somewhere. A practice must be... lol, well.

 

[Sommerswerd]

There are those who turn thoughts and prayers into works. If I'm being in a better state, for a moment. An accord with the divine must start somewhere. A practice must be... lol, well.

"14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" James 2:14-16

"Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." - James 2:17
"But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" - James 2:20

 

[Farm Boy]

It would seem to not be faith.

If we're keeping with the sort that's been being laid out here, as we go.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Going back to the earlier point about Abraham's faith, as a precursor to Job's faith...

"21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." - James 2:21-24

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. - Matthew 19:21

Jesus' point was that you had to be willing to sacrifice... to lose what was dear to you, even to lose everything, to demonstrate your faith.

But to your point... my point... is that love without works isn't really love... its just "thoughts and prayers"... faith without works. Love is action, not just feeling alone. Mere belief that you love someone, without any action to demonstrate that belief, is just "faith without works"... thoughts and prayers.

 

[Farm Boy]

It presumes to take Love's place, its throne. The Morning Star corporeal.

 

[Sommerswerd]

One day, you will, beside it... but not today. Remember that there's no rush for eternal things.

 

[Core Imposter]

Gori's formulation works, best, if you adhere to the admonition to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh. Because we cannot help everyone and wouldn't know where to start or when to stop. But, and this is just for those of us who profess faith in a real God and a real Holy Spirit, God will see to it that we find ourselves near to the ones we need to help.

That's why sometimes I feel "led" to stop by the homeless person by the door, which routinely I just walk past.

I don't know how or when the Christian philosophers choose unless they are maybe observing the 6-foot Covid rule.

 

[Hygro]

The only point I want to make is that that is a very static way of thinking about who might be your neighbor, and Jesus' ultimate conception replaces that with a more dynamic way. He takes a state (these people are this close to me) and turns it into an action (I can go make a neighbor of that person over there--by going over there where that person is!). It basically has the effect of turning neighbor into a verb: you can choose to "neighbor" somebody.

Does that sound right?

Damn look at Jesus building a whole religion out of it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn minutes to hours?

*immediately feels compelled to whistle "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"*

I don't think I can help meet Trump's needs. They are psychological (spiritual, maybe) more than financial, in my estimation, and I don't feel I can plumb the abyss.

If I met him, I would try. I feel almost certain I would fail. I don't know where one would even begin to get purchase. He's got barriers up against everything healthy.

In my life, I've met two people a little bit like him: narcissists, I mean. They are, in my experience, impenetrable.

He scoffed at the thought that Nancy Pelosi prayed/prays for him. Couldn't process it, except to say "she prays for the opposite, maybe." Whatever that means. He lacks rudimentary language for describing spiritual matters.

Trump lacks rudimentary language for being any sort of decent human being. There are politicians running my province who admire him.


Out of curiosity, I typed "DUH" into the search bar on Pinterest. It can't handle that. I got back results that were literally all over the map. Some of it's in languages I can't read.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I do not think the sky pilot and bureaucrat excluded themselves from the group

The question is whether they excluded the injured man from the group for whom they are obliged to care.

They pretty obviously did that, right?

On you other point, we are to some extent working backwards from our knowledge that God doesn't exclude anyone from the group (in other words from what we already know is the ultimate meaning of this parable).

 

[Samson]

The question is whether they excluded the injured man from the group for whom they are obliged to care.

They pretty obviously did that, right?

They excluded him from the group they thought they are obliged to care for.

 

[Gori the Grey]

because my one word answer would have been "helped" not "approached".

You see why my reading wants to place the emphasis on "approached," though, right? He first makes the man a near-one, and then helps him as such.

you can't love "everyone" unless you can start with the person right next to you

That's why my reading is replacing "everyone" with "anyone," which, on one level is no difference at all (all of the world's anyones add up to everyone), but on another level makes all the difference in the world, in exactly the way you point out.

They excluded him from the group they thought they are obliged to care for.

And the Samaritan didn't. And his not doing so involves, as the first order of business, walking up to the injured man instead of away from him, yes?

Damn look at Jesus building a whole religion out of it.

And/or us building a religion out of how inspirational we find his answer, yes?

 

[Hygro]

Christians take note Gori doing your Lord’s Work

 

[Core Imposter]

The priest and Levite may have passed by on the other side for many reasons. Not the least of which could be that it would cost them time and money and no one would be around to see their good deed. What would have been the point?

 

[Gori the Grey]

You know the answer to that question. Are you just testing whether the rest of us do?

Because if so,

Matthew 6: 1-4