Thank you so much for reading:
‘Do not hold back what is good to whom it belongs,
when it’s in your power to do it.
Don’t tell your neighbor, ‘Go and come back tomorrow and I’ll give it’ –
if you have it with you. (Proverbs 3: 27-28)
Living well and sensibly can be very down-to-earth.
As it says here, treat others well
when it is in your power to do so.
It starts by simply giving others the good they deserve,
do not hold back for our own profit.
God made that very clear in Leviticus 19: 13:
‘You must not oppress or rob your neighbor.
The wages of a daytime worker stay with you all night until the morning ‘.
There are countless examples throughout history
of people who exploit fellow humans.
This angers God, and He will not leave it unpunished.
For example, read what God says in Malachi 3: 5 –
‘Then I will approach you for judgment.
I will be a swift witness against those who oppress the day shift worker in his wages,
the widow and the fatherless, against those who pushed the stranger aside,
and do not fear me, saith the Lord of hosts ‘.
Giving others the good they deserve may seem so trivial –
not exceptionally wise or holy.
And yet this often goes wrong that we need to be explicitly reminded:
‘He told you, oh man, what is good;
and what does the Lord ask of you?
but to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6: 8) .
How can we help the people around us?
This has been asked a bit of us,
we who have it so well….