If you look at the Didache (the instructions for how to live written by the Apostles after Jesus died) it uses the inverse of the Golden Rule. Whatever you would not have done unto you, that you should not do unto others. I have heard it said the positive sense (do unto others) refers to social welfare, and the negative (do not unto others) refers to civil justice.

This!! I’ll be referencing this daily if not moment by moment! Thanks again for all you do.

Meant to include, specifically, this:

“One of the key important lessons of my life for being able to love people better and be in greater peace with them was to let go of my innate desires to:

teach people
correct people
save people (from error or from “hell”)
make sure people know what I know, or know that I already know X
share with people the truth I’m excited about (and assume they “should” be, too)
be understood correctly by people (a biggie!)”

I left church in high school about 6 or 7 years ago because I was brought up in a church that was extremely judgmental and love was not very apparent. Shortly after, I discovered your book and articles and that made me feel better about my decision. Still, though, as a person from a religious (but loving) family, I am often questioned and pressured by my mother as to why I do not attend church. She even went as far as to talk to several people in a town I moved to about a church she thought was interesting and asked people if I would be happy there. I am now pregnant with twins, so now she is especially worried about church attendance. I have tried to find a church, but it is incredibly difficult to find one that preaches truth and love rather than false doctrines. I don’t believe it’s their fault – that’s what they were taught, after all. But I feel uneasy about raising my children up in a church that teaches them lies. I will continue to search for a fellowship that is truth and love, but if I fail, I will do my best to teach them Yehovah’s way – To love Him and to love neighbor as self.

I have come to tell others that I follow Jesus’ teachings as best as I can but I am not religious. That seems to clarify things especially for those who aren’t believers. To other religious Christians it will never be enough.

Religious Christians always want to know if you are attending a church, tithing, and active in a church – meaning busy work that doesn’t help others know how to follow Jesus daily. When asked if they believe that the way to salvation is belief in Jesus’ words they agree but think it is church attendance, baptism, tithing, and busy work with church programs that is obedience. They push love others way down to the bottom. It is unfortunate, but it took me a while to see it too many years ago.

Thanks Tim, When I’m questioned about the “Right” religion, I send them back to Romans14, and tell them to not get wrapped around the axel on the details.
Jim

Hello Tim, I wasn’t sure under what subject to ask this question and decided to put it here because Christianity have hyjacked so many things that are not relevant to us today.
When reading the NT I have noticed that Yeshua prayed about three times that I am aware of before breaking the bread and distributing it amongst the people. Two times when he was feeding the crowds of 4000 and 5000 and once at the last supper. I do not say it is the only times, there could be more that I have missed.
My question is do you have to pray every time before you eat?
I do not find anything so far where it was instructed by Yeshua but under Christianity it is a big given.
When I do my morning and evening prayers I always thank our Father Yehovah for the daily meals he is providing to me. Is this sufficient? Please give me your take on this one.

Enjoyed that, thank you Tim! Even the cheap shot at Flat Earthers…haha…I still support you…all the best :))

A most meaty article that satifies the hunger in my soul, thanks is not saying enough…

Tim: My Pentecostal Brethren are telling me of my sin living with a woman I’m not married to. We can avoid this mess, and re-enter a state of Grace by marring. When I read in Matt 19, Mark 10, and Luke 10, Jesus said when a divorced person remarries they are in a state of adultery, a state that I would admit we would be currently in no matter what. That said, Is there a teaching of Jesus I’m missing (my pastor can’t find one except for some commentary of one of the Apostol’s, or a lesser prophet, but nothing in RED Letters. Why would the “Church” be in hurry to sanction our sin?

I read your article. Makes sense! If God didn’t give clear instructions on all the rules and restraints we assume He gave us, then we can’t be required to do them.

Makes it a whole lot easier now to just ask myself if “it’s loving God, loving man, loving self” to see if something is OK without worrying God is going to judge me for things I don’t know or understand yet in the Bible.

When Prophet Elijah appears to restore the true teaching and to gather people back to God, he will be claiming authority of other religious leaders, one of them will ofcourse be the Roman Catholic Pope.

Maybe a bit radical question, but if the two start arguing over authority, will Elijah have the right and power to kill him, or silence him atleast, if the Pope becomes an obstacle to Elijah’s mission?

Howdy Brother!

Part 2 is spot on and your article came at a time when I definitely could’ve used a little encouragement. I can’t really say how or why I’ve been doing this Tim, but I’ve just been trying to keep the commandments of love YHVH and my neighbor and let the rest sort it out.

No judgement, no trying to play by the “rules”, etc. (of course that’s because I still don’t know what “rules” to play by other than the above stated.) Every now and then, I’ll have discussions with family, friends, etc about why I don’t go to church, don’t practice religion anymore, and that I’m in trouble for back sliding etc. All I do then is pray for three simple things that always keep me on track which I’ll leave here and maybe you can write this in an article to help those who seem to struggle as I do. In order to accept the no religion paradigm and obey the only two commandments we need to obey, I simply pray for three things from the Father.

1 – Courage – To continue to face this life that I don’t understand and do the right thing.

2 – Strength – To endure the trials and tribulations that come with going against the status quo and facing the never ending (although often well intentioned) onslaught of “you’re backsliding and in danger of going to hell unless you get back to church and fellowship with likeminded believers.” (Boy I’ll bet you could write a ridiculously long article on that one even though my likeminded believers are right here online.)

3 – Grace – To open my mind and accept the “truth” for what I’m supposed to learn and take it to heart so I may continue to obey the commandments of loving my God with all my heart, soul and strength and my neighbor as myself.

This is not an end all, be all prayer but I can testify that when I’m struggling, (which occurs far more often than I’d like to admit), praying for these three things has ALWAYS brought me peace and the ability to “keep on keeping on.”

Part 2 came when I needed a little pick me up to remind me that I am on the right track. Thanks again for doing what you do. Look forward to meeting you one day face to face finally.

Blessings and Peace to you, Katrina and the family with love from mine,

Todd Kemp

Hi Tim,
I’m relatively new to your website but want to commend you on another superb article. Reminds me of an incident someone was telling me about a few years ago when they attended an end-times prophecy conference which featured a number of well-recognized evangelists and pastors. The subject of ‘pre-trib vs post-trib’ came up and almost immediately the gloves were off. Some very well- known “evangelists” suddenly began hurling epithets at each other that would shame a pirate in defense of their position (or as they might say, “God’s position”). As I’ve encountered this type of behavior many times over the years between believers “defending God’s truth” the only thing I found a little shocking was the level of vulgarity he implied these well-respected leaders had stooped to. He mentioned none of them by name and I really had no interest in knowing who they were anyway but I was a bit taken aback by the story in general. I am reminded that no matter how well-researched or convinced I am of a certain position relating to God’s word, once I have crossed the line of common civility and entered into self-righteous judgment of someone with an opposing view, I have ceased to function as one who “loves his neighbor as himself”. How can the Holy Spirit possibly be functioning through me or anyone else behaving in such a manner? As you very wisely indicated, so often, keeping one’s peace (i.e., silent) and praying for someone we feel is in error is the approach I think God would have us take. And who knows, could it be, that maybe, just maybe, it’s ME who might be in error and in need of correction? Thanks again for an excellent article that was very well thought out and superbly written. Keep up the fantastic work!

Hello Tim, just a quick question, there are two questions at the end of this article that I am very interested in on how you will answer them. Are they still in progress? Thanks.

Two quotes from your article, with my *emphasis* …

“And most of all, I finally realized something that I never did in decades of church: that it’s all about *how you think about and treat other people*. I’m way better at that these days, too—now that I focus on that instead of meetings, rituals, and special days and holidays.”

So true. This has to be one of my biggest challenges, especially the “think” part of it. I used to believe that it was okay to “think” something so long as you don’t say it. So much has changed since those days. Thinking good thoughts about everyone and everything is such a big challenge. Phil 4:8 sums it up well for me
Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

It helped me to hang this verse on the previous two verses.

Phil4:6-7 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

2nd quote from article
“One of the key important lessons of my life for being able to love people better and be in greater peace with them was to *let go of my innate desires to*: teach people; correct people; save people from error or from “hell”; make sure people know what I know, or that I already know X; share with people the truth I’m excited about and assume they should be, too; be understood correctly by people (a biggie!)”

I once thought that it was my mission in life to correct everyone around me who had somehow developed an “inferior” understanding of this or that, including the Christianity cult that I was a part of and, believe it or not, I even spent a lot of time and energy defending some of the false and distorted teachings.

Thanks Tim for reinforcing my decision to move away from a cult-like organisation and looking to live a more informed life seeking the truth about Yehovah.

Barb Douglas……I am so enjoying all that you have written, Tim. The remarks about the precious Rapture “upset my canoe” for awhile but am trying my level best to understand, with God’s help of course.

I do believe most fully in “do unto others…..”, but, Tim, what about the people who love to destroy others for their own glory? How do we, as lovers of Truth, respond i.e. starters of terrible wars and so on? How can we love them when we are horrified at such behaviour? HELP please, at the moment I cannot seem to find my way…..what is in my heart is I can love their souls but not their behaviour!! God bless and thanks for everything I am reading!

I did mean for there to be a “LOL” or HaHaHA after my comment above about my coworkers benefiting from my great knowledge & wisdom – in case the ridiculousness of the statement alone was not sufficient to convey my attempt at self deprecating sarcasm. ☺

Thanks for clarifying that. “Not ready” sounds a lot better.

This has actually been something I’ve been wrestling with lately, feeling the need to share what I have learned with my wife and kids thinking they’ll need this information now so they have time to start praying for strength and to be ready to go when the time comes to flee. My kids are fairly receptive but my wife, not so much!

This applies to my job too. I’m guilty of pointing out how much more I know than the people I work with, thinking this is the loving thing to do because after all, they’ll benefit from my great knowledge and wisdom. ☺

Big time AHA moment right here: “We are best-served with continuing to work on ourselves so we bear more good fruit before trying to “evangelize.”

Thanks Tim!

Its no wonder I feel so awkward and tongue tied some times when I try to explain my faith to someone. I’m not worthy yet. This totally makes sense, contrary to the Christian idea that we are all called to evangelize.

Of course Yehovah would want us to qualify first to be ambassadors for Him! Makes perfect sense!

Thanks for finally helping me to understand this. It seems like such an easy concept. Yet its taken me until now to finally understand why refraining from sharing my faith with people who aren’t interested is the loving thing to do.

Thanks Tim!

Wow. Thank you Tim. There’s a lot of wisdom in what you say, especially about how to love others. I always think new insights are like cake and you want so badly to share them… only to later see you’ve been shoving them down people’s throats. It’s taking me time and awareness to get over that.

Thanks for sharing what to call ourselves so quickly. You aleiviated the fear I had been carrying.

God bless you

Tim, pardon me if I missed the answer you have to this question… I have searched but there is so much information on your site!

What do we call ourselves? In Acts 11:26 we see the apostles called Christians for the first time. Strongs defines Christianos as a follower of Christ. Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t that be a better source than Websters?

Despite the bad reputation the name has gained, wouldn’t I still be right in calling myself a Christian if my desire and goal is to live like Christ?

“Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” 1 Peter 4:16

Looking forward to your thoughts.

God bless you and your family

Oh you stinker….So many questions and no answers!!!!! :<) Looking forward to the next parts:<) Shavua Tov! drb

I am learning that Christianity = (many) Organisations with all their self sustaining requirements (esp that no-one asks questions or shares new truths that might rock the boat and that they religiously tithe (to them). ie: sit down and shut up).

Even on-line fellowship can be challenging with everyone’s different views. Some folk in on-line communities also become upset if someone has different views.

I agree with your position Tim, that the best thing one can do is to pray and set an example of love in real life without judgement (judgement is for Yehovah, not us)

Our job as far as I can determine is to love and obey.

I am learning about the Torah and trying to follow that in regards to obedience- my belief, my choice.

However, I have no certainty that I am on the right path and I pray the Lord’s Prayer every day (with numerous insertions including intercessory requests).

Yehovah knows my heart with all it’s yearnings (good and bad).
While reading your articles, I am continually reminded to ask myself “am I the kind of person that Yehovah (and everyone else) would want to spend eternity with?

Man, that’s a sobering thought.

Currently, my objective self assessment is a resounding “no”!
Working on it and thanks for your input!

Thanks, Tim. I think many of us are very confused about what to do in regard to our “religion”.
Keeping an open mind is a start.
Looking forward to the next installment.
What do we call ourselves??