They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love [updated]

Not by the way we judge and condemn others, but by the way we love.

• We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

• We are to treat others the way we wish to be treated.

• We are not to judge others, because when we do we will be judged the same way in return.

• We are to feed the hungry.

• Give drink to the thirsty.

• Tend to the sick.

• Shelter the poor.

• Comfort the dying.

• Visit those in prison.

• We are to go the extra mile.*

• We are to turn the other cheek.

• We are not to return evil for evil.

• We are to forgive seventy times seven.

• We are not to put stumbling blocks before others.

If God never mentioned it, and if Jesus never mentioned it, and if Christ's death fulfilled the Old Testament covenant** and brought an end to Moses' holiness laws***, then maybe we shouldn't get our knickers in a twist over it, either.

* Which in Jesus' era literally meant carrying the armor of an oppressive pagan enemy twice as far as they demanded.

** Which, contrary to human misunderstanding, if not a set of orders issued unilaterally from above with a threat of punishment if they aren’t obey, but a mutually consented agreement:  If you want Me to be your God, you need to do the following…

*** As God told Peter in the dream about the clean and unclean animals.