Viewing love for our neighbor through biblical prospective.
What is the second greatest commandment of God? Jesus gave us a very direct answer to this question,
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?
And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” '
Matthew 22:36-40
We shall love our neighbor as ourself.
How exactly are we to do this?
Should we allow our neighbor to be defrauded?
Should we support powerful people’s agendas against their opponents?
Should we turn our attention away when the “authorities” execute vendettas against their opponents, whether we like them, or not?
Should we ignore the fact that many of the, “the laws of our land,” were not constitutionally made into law, and often allow for the theft of our neighbor’s wealth, their condemnation, or their imprisonment?
I believe that the answer to these questions are a resounding no. I have come to recognize the complete relatability of Isiah 5:20 to the America of today. Our elected officials have been defrauding our citizens, and stealing the wealth that they have earned by their physical, and intellectual labor for the last one hundred years plus.
“Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Isaiah 5:20
The wealth stolen from the American people has been further perverted by its use in plots against the very people that it was stolen from. This is where we have gotten programs like Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and many other, “social services,” used to bribe producers, and non-producers alike for their vote, further exploiting the producers. This is where the hundreds of billions of dollars to fund “endless wars” has been harvested. Through institutional inflation, these assaults have been further exacerbated.
As I have previously stated, before the Federal Reserve was empowered to separate America’s currency from the gold standard set forth by Article 1, section 8, and 10, one ounce of gold equalled $20. There were no mitigating circumstances to amend this relationship. One ounce of gold had an inherent value, and $20 was simply the currency representation of that value via the American dollar.
According to GoldPrice.org, the current “price of one ounce of gold,” as of this writing is $1,795.35.
https://goldprice.org/gold-price.html
$1,795.35, divided by $20, is 89.7675. This means that each, and every dollar in circulation has been devalued to more than 1/89th of its original value. Do you find this fact encouraging, or confidence inspiring? Do you realize that this means that for every dollar we earn, our government spends nearly 89?
Article I, section 8 requires that only Congress is authorized to, “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.”
Article I, section 10 states, “No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts…”
I know, some of you may be brilliant mathematicians, and will likely point out that this inflation did not occur overnight. It was introduced, then gradually increased to this degree, but here I am only speaking of the devaluation of our currency. This does not include the taxation itself. These two factors enable our government to spend many times more of the wealth created by the American citizens, than they would be able to spend without the deception of inflation.
The purpose at this time is not to flesh out all the issue of inflation, rather I’ve chosen to use inflation to exemplify one of the many problems that result from not loving our neighbors as our selves. How can we effectively “love” our neighbor if we assist others in the plunder of their resources?
I may address inflation in greater detail later in this series, but you can read more on my, INFLATION SubStack.
The topic at hand is our commitment to equal justice under the law. Unless our conscience has been seared, our human nature tells us that some things should be lawful, while others should not. The elements of our constitution reinforce the need for righteous laws, and its framers followed the premises of our Declaration of Independence as it endeavored to set a framework to produce righteous laws.
John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Thus, all laws should follow a moral, and religious pattern, which should execute love for our neighbors.
Most of us were taught the “golden rule.”
“Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.” As we can see, we all would like to be treated justly by others, and should likewise return the favor. Our laws should reflect this premise, not favor one over the other, allowing for the plunder of the less fortunate, or less intelligent.
The fundamental purpose of our constitution is to insure that our laws are just for all Americans, that the enforcement of our laws is just, and that disputes over the violation of those just laws are adjudicated justly. This is how our forefathers, and the framers of our constitution sought to love their neighbors, and their prodigy.
God bless you, Dave