Compassion. Keep His Commandments and Walk as He Walked. Update

Compassion

“We are all on this journey together and God has a way of pointing out our flaws and making us see our errors, and we all make them.

Ant Rozetsky/Unsplash

Extend the same compassion and understanding to others that you want to have extended to you.

I am seeing an alarming trend on social media where people are using it to chastise others.

I will be watching myself closely in the future to try to be sure no one takes anything I say in that light.

“Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?” (James 4:11-12).

We are all on this journey together and God has a way of pointing out our flaws and making us see our errors, and we all make them.

Don’t make it a matter to be seen by hundreds or even thousands. And a difference in nuances of opinion is not an offense, so please don’t take it as such.

Embrace empathy, commit random acts of kindness, pray for those you feel might be in error that God will show them the error of their ways. And while you are at it, ask God to make you aware of where you could be in error.

Our brain’s response to social media falls into the fight or flight responses needed when we are in danger. You are no longer thinking, just acting. Don’t let the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) control how you handle others.

“But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Galatians 5:15).

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone” (Matthew 23:23).

Please extend the same compassion and understanding to others that you want to have extended to you.”  From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/compassion

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Keep His Commandments and Walk as He Walked

1 John 2:4-6

He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

The apostle John also recorded in his Gospel these words of Jesus Christ: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

As we saw in passages like Mark 1:21, Mark 6:2 and Luke 4:31, Jesus Christ set the example of keeping the Sabbath, one of God’s 10 Commandments. The Bible tells us to follow His example and “walk just as He walked.” This includes remembering the Sabbath day, as the New Testament Church and the apostles, including the apostle Paul, did.” From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/keep-his-commandments-and-walk-as-he-walked/?

For more about the consistent teaching of the Bible about the 10 Commandments, see “Are the 10 Commandments Upheld in the New Testament?”

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Update

This thing about “compassion” was brought home to me, coming and going, this week.  I was chastised on social media for over-correcting (nagging) one of my kids.  The kid didn’t realize that, like most parents, I was only doing it because I loved them and cared how they acted.  If I hadn’t cared, then, well ….  I wouldn’t have cared.  I, too, hadn’t realized how my correcting them had seemed like I was nagging them, when really I was just overwrought and worried how I was going to feed us and still make a living while I was sick. I should have shown more compassion. 

Another situation had arisen about compassion. The cat that I rescued, peed on my bed so that I had to buy new bedding, and I was ready to have him PTS.  Then found out that it is sometimes a sign of love from a cat.   He was so thankful for the good food and love that I was giving him, and that was his way of showing it, not knowing that it would not be appreciated.   I looked at his scarred legs and tail, and realized that this cat had really been through it. Who was I, whom he dearly loved, not to give him a wonderful life, even if it meant keeping him out of my bedroom, or putting a disposable plastic table cloth on my bed when the bedroom door was open.  So now I have a loving, happy cat and a clean bed.  I am doing my best for him, so he is on antibiotics for his wounds, probiotics for his system, and has been dewormed.  We still like to have our cuddle times on the couch, I just don’t let him near my bed!  Though I think the feel of the plastic table cloth didn’t feel good to him when he checked it out and he hasn’t jumped up there since.

Then one more scenario came to light.  There is an elderly gentleman who has Alzheimer’s which is getting worse. He used to drive himself to dialysis three times a week, but now he can’t remember, so he has to take a bus and rely on the bus driver to get him where he needs to go.  He is in constant confusion, and is very stressed.  I wish I lived closer so I could drive him there, wait for him, and take him home.  I am sure they have WiFi there so I could occupy my time, in fact one doesn’t even need a connection to work on Open Live Writer, just post it later.   Surely someone near there could have enough compassion to do that for him?

This morning my neighbor and I went to the church and participated in the Bible study. Others, who were "distancing" we watched on Zoom, and we were glad for the fellowship of our church friends, it was so great to be around the few sweet people that were there, though all 6’ apart!  The service was being taped on FB from another location so we didn’t see that. We usually hug, but not these days.