TurtleAnne
Active Member
I think it is a matter of not backing ourselves into corners where ethics contradict the greatest commandment given by Jesus, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30) The second greatest commandment given was, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:31)
An example of what I mean is also found in Mark, when it comes to Herod backing himself into such a corner. In Mark 6, Herod promises someone that they can ask for anything they want, and Herod will give it to them. At the same time, Herod may have been on his way to salvation otherwise, because Herod liked listening to John the Baptist and considered John to be a righteous man. But the person wound up asking Herod for John's severed head. So then Herod was in a situation where he could either do right by God (not executing John the Baptist), or Herod could do right by humans (upholding his integrity and keeping his promise, which would mean beheading John). This put in Herod's mind two different meanings of doing the "right thing" and ultimately Herod chose to do 'right' by human standards instead of God's standards. If Herod had not made such a promise, if Herod had no made his integrity a matter for humans to judge, then Herod would not have been in that position.
So likewise, with being "nice" - Being nice, compassionate, friendly, pleasant, etc is all fine and well on its own, but not if it contradicts the greatest commandment given by Jesus, in which case the "niceness" is only a surface problem, or like a symptom, where the deeper underlying problem is going against God.
An example of what I mean is also found in Mark, when it comes to Herod backing himself into such a corner. In Mark 6, Herod promises someone that they can ask for anything they want, and Herod will give it to them. At the same time, Herod may have been on his way to salvation otherwise, because Herod liked listening to John the Baptist and considered John to be a righteous man. But the person wound up asking Herod for John's severed head. So then Herod was in a situation where he could either do right by God (not executing John the Baptist), or Herod could do right by humans (upholding his integrity and keeping his promise, which would mean beheading John). This put in Herod's mind two different meanings of doing the "right thing" and ultimately Herod chose to do 'right' by human standards instead of God's standards. If Herod had not made such a promise, if Herod had no made his integrity a matter for humans to judge, then Herod would not have been in that position.
So likewise, with being "nice" - Being nice, compassionate, friendly, pleasant, etc is all fine and well on its own, but not if it contradicts the greatest commandment given by Jesus, in which case the "niceness" is only a surface problem, or like a symptom, where the deeper underlying problem is going against God.
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