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● Matt 22:36-40 . . Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said
unto him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is
like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.
The Greek verb translated "love" doesn't necessarily imply either affection and/or
fondness. It's just as much about the way we treat our fellow men as our personal
feelings about them. This is the kind of love that we ought to be extending to
everyone-- friend, foe, family, and stranger alike. It's the very same love that Jesus
taught in Matt 5:44 which reads:
"You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor, and hate your
enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies,"
In other words; you don't especially have to like your neighbors, you family, and/or
your enemies, but you do have to be benevolent, i.e. courteous, kind, charitable,
tolerant, patient, diplomatic, tactful, gentle, reasonable, fair, deferential, cordial,
genial, affable, sociable, helpful, thoughtful, sympathetic, considerate, and
cooperative, etc. And of course those all apply to the way that people associate with
God too because the same Greek verb is used of loving God as loving one's
neighbors and enemies.
The above tells me that quite a few people are on the road to Hell simply because
their manners are uncivil, and insufferable, with both God and Man, viz: they not
only aren't nice to their fellow men, but they aren't even nice to God-- they don't
care about marginalizing Him, tuning Him out, insulting Him, chafing Him, and/or
hurting His feelings. In other words: the two most important of all the
commandments bounces off their thick skulls like a banana thrown at a Russian
tank.
POP CLOCK UPDATE: 295 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the OP's
figures are in the ball park, then something like 20,487,750 new arrivals have checked
into the fiery sector of Hades since Oct 09, 2023.
_