Jesus our Model(This is a series of essays on various teachings of LORD/Jesus other than Sermon on the Mount, and on how Jesus lived his life on Earth.) |
Jesus : No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. [Mt 6:24]
Jesus : Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. [Mt 6:19-21]
Jesus : When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. [Luke 14:12-14]
LORD : Is not this the fast that I choose : to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke ? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? [Is 58:6-7]
LORD : When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. [Lev. 19:9-10]
LORD : Three times in a year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labour, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labour. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD GOD." [Ex. 23:12-17, Lev. 23]
(Note : During the feasts (or festivals), Israelites would offer sheep/cattle as "peace offerings". Part of the meat (breast, right thigh) is given to the priest. The rest of the meat, they usually share with their poor neighbours, widows and orphans.)
LORD : If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbour's garment in pledge, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down; for that is his only covering, it is his mantle for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. [Ex. 22:25-27]
LORD : And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him, as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. [Lev. 25:35-37]
LORD : If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the ass of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to lift it up. [Ex. 23:4-5]
Jesus : There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, "What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' He said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, "Take your bill, and write eighty.' The master commended the dishonest steward for his prudence; for the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.
He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches ? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own ? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve GOD and mammon. [Luke 16:1-13]
(Jesus said the following when the Pharisees accused him of not washing before eating: )
Jesus :
Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. [Luke 11:37-41]
(Note : we must make our heart clean, and let not evil thoughts lodge in our heart. Then even if we do not have money to give to other people, encouraging them with words of kindness, or teaching them godly precepts may also help.)
Jesus : For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. [Mt 5:20]
Jesus : Beware of practising your piety before men in order to be seen
by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is
in heaven.
Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may
be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your
Father who sees in secret will reward you. [Mt 6:2-4]
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?' And he answered, "you shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live."
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half-dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii, and gave them to the inn-keeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." [Luke 10:29-37]
Jesus : The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops ?' And he said, 'I will do this : I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But GOD said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be ? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward GOD. [Luke 12:16-21]
Paul (Note : Paul was an early Christian. Many of his letters were collected into the New Testament) : Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [1 Cor 13:4-7]
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