Everything, every little thing we do should be grounded in LOVE. We are our brothers keepers.
Whoever causes a believer to stumble will be held accountable.
Love fulfills the commandments. If we love God and others we will not do them harm. We will be fair, we will be forgiving and we will remain humble in our walk with our Creator. Micah 6:8
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:16-17
Romans 14:15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.
Matthew 25:45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart" (Proverbs 3:5).
Rich is not about what we possess. Or own. We’ve turned wealth into a way to objectify stuff and relationships, predicated on having, possessing and preening.Rich is about the real connections that expand our life, and give us value. Rich is about the connections that promote the value of love, empathy and compassion and encourage us to struggle against what is artificial, mechanical and cold.
Rich is about personal renewal, nurturing a curriculum of a truly spiritual life; grounded in love, mercy, tenderness, compassion, forgiveness, hope, trust, simplicity, silence, peace, and joy; slowly transfiguring us. (Thank you Richard Rohr.)
As leaders—be it in our families, our workplaces, or our communities—we will never be able to totally have everyone's back all the time. That said, we can minister in the gap with our hearts and with compassion. We can minister by listening, by sharing practices, by showing tenderness, and by sharing our own experiences that helped us when we felt alone, afraid, and disconnected. We can minister by apologizing as well when it's needed. My friends, see yourself on this day and this week as a minister with a pulpit or platform, because you actually have one. Believe that you have a message worth sharing because you do. Believe that you have a presence that can make another person feel protected in this moment because you do.”
"They serve one another.”
Which brings to mind Etty Hillesum’s empowering words, “Ultimately, we have just one moral duty. To reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.”
Thank you Etty. Your words bolster and sustain me.
And let us remember, Etty did not write that sentence from a dispassionate distance. Speaking of a world tilting, Etty was a young Jewish woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and who died in Auschwitz, one of the millions of victims of the Holocaust. We didn’t know about her meticulous diary until decades after her death. From the day when Dutch Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star, up to the day she boarded a cattle car bound for Poland, Etty consecrated herself to the wholehearted task of bearing witness to the inviolable power of love. To honor the sacred present with sensitivity to human suffering and gratitude for beauty in the everyday. Sabbath Moments
1 Corinthians 8:9–13
9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. The New King James Version
“I will never eat meat” expresses the distance that Paul is willing to go to demonstrate his love for fellow believers. Although Paul knows that it is theoretically acceptable to consume meat sacrificed to idols, he does not act on such knowledge or appeal to his right to freedom. Instead, he bases his decisions concerning ethically neutral matters on his love for believers in Christ. Faithlife Study Bible
The knowledgeable believers were correct in their view of idols, but it did not matter. If the weaker brothers and sisters saw other believers eating food offered to idols, they might also eat, in violation of their own conscience. To go against the conscience was in fact sinning. By their knowledge the stronger believers were causing the weaker believers to stumble. Paul exhorted the strong believers to show love to the weaker ones by refraining from offending them. The NKJV Study Bible
He who has the Spirit of Christ in him, will love those whom Christ loved so as to die for them. Injuries done to Christians, are done to Christ; but most of all, the entangling them in guilt: wounding their consciences, is wounding him. Men cannot thus sin against their brethren, without offending Christ, and endangering their own souls. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
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