Simple English words I thought I knew

[PatAnswer]

Neighbor

This seemed pretty straightforward: neighbor – one who lives around or in proximity with me, wherever I may be.

And of course Jesus answered the question “who is my neighbor?” with something that really challenged the minds of the Jews in his day. The Samaritan was neighbor to the man who was robbed along the road. The Jews hated the Samaritans and couldn't even conceive of helping one or being helped by one.

Wasn't I surprised to learn that if you didn't like someone or didn't get along with them you could say they weren't your neighbor, even if they lived across the street. Where did I learn this? Sitting in the class Living Victoriously when Wierwille was teaching on love. When he came to "love your neighbor as yourself" he said “and who is my neighbor? Certainly not that son of a _____ that lives down the road!” pointing to the house across from the Wierwille home and the BRC (I think his name was Schrolucke [sp?]. The audience giggled with delight and I squirmed. I should have taken this as a cue to get out.

Enemy

Well if you don't have to love your neighbor, what about loving your enemy? How can you get out of this one? Martindale was the one who answered this one. He taught that an enemy is someone in the “household” who is a temporary enemy and needs to recover. You can help him (the temporary enemy) by loving (confronting and yelling at) him and getting him back in alignment. Just redefine simple words and you're under no obligation to love those you don't like. Problem solved.

Poor

Well if you don't have to love your real neighbors or your real enemies, at least you can take care of the poor, right? Nope. The word “poor” was redefined as “humble” everywhere it popped up. Case solved, no need to give to the (real)poor. TWI quoted Jesus saying “you have the poor always with you” so why waste your time(money) with them? They're always going to be around. They're a slothful bunch. If they really wanted help they'd be humble so you can teach them the word you know and they can believe to have abundance. Give TWI the money and they'll make the word available for these poor (humble) people. [As so often happened, TWI hung their doctrinal hat on one verse or a part of one (you have the poor with you always), ignoring the context of Jesus saying “but me you have not always”, meaning “let her take care of me, I'm not going to be around much longer. The poor will always be around so you can take care of them later.) Then one day I read it in Mar 14:7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

Fornication/Adultery

We don't really need to rehash this do we? Enough said

I can't believe I tolerated any of this. You innies: wake up! Think! If they are still teaching this have the guts to question it. Maybe you'll find out how much they love you!

[OperaBuff]

/sarcasm on/

Why doesn't The Way just read what is written?!?!

/sarcasm off/

[socks]

I don't know about anyone else but that's the first time I've seen that idea for using a tag for that...........awesome. If this is something completely new, cheers, kudos and the next free Beer is on me. Very very cool!

/sarcasm on/

..........That's really funny. Thanks. I wish there were a tag like that that would render a universally accepted text enhancement - maybe wavy italics. What would "droll" look like? It's an interesting proposition, what would a sarcasm font look like? There's a gazillion fonts as it is - there must be something that would work or something that would catch on.

Good topic, and would agree.

[excathedra]

love your post patanswer and your handle

i'm laughing my azz off about the neighbor down the road jeez