LittleDrummerBoy
Senior Member
Why do we often judge our brothers harshly when their love for their neighbors looks different from our own?
Was the command of Christ, "Do to others as a consensus among a certain group would have you do unto them?" Was the command of Christ, "Love your neighbor as someone else would want to be loved?"
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Beyond that, Jesus left a lot of room for each of us to have an individual approach. In fact, that individual approach is key to his central commands governing human relationships. Think about how you would want to be treated - do that for others. Think about how you would want love expressed toward you - do that for others.
That makes it hard to judge, since we cannot look into our brother's heart and see if he is loving his neighbor as himself. Yes, often harm is easy to recognize - and that's not love. But in matters where there is no harm - who am I to say of a brother, "That's not love, because that's not what I would do"? Yikes!
Was the command of Christ, "Do to others as a consensus among a certain group would have you do unto them?" Was the command of Christ, "Love your neighbor as someone else would want to be loved?"
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Beyond that, Jesus left a lot of room for each of us to have an individual approach. In fact, that individual approach is key to his central commands governing human relationships. Think about how you would want to be treated - do that for others. Think about how you would want love expressed toward you - do that for others.
That makes it hard to judge, since we cannot look into our brother's heart and see if he is loving his neighbor as himself. Yes, often harm is easy to recognize - and that's not love. But in matters where there is no harm - who am I to say of a brother, "That's not love, because that's not what I would do"? Yikes!