Leave Your Neighbors House To Your Neighbor

The Ninth Commandment.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.

What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not craftily seek to get our neighbor's inheritance or house, and obtain it by a show of [justice and] right, etc., but help and be of service to him in keeping it.

(http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php)

 

The ninth commandment goes hand in hand with the seventh: "You shall not steal." Leave your neighbor's property alone. Don't even think about it; unless you are thinking about ways to help him keep his property. Desiring what belongs to someone else can lead to all kinds of evil against him as our desires becomes obsessive thoughts and our obsessive thoughts turn to evils action to get what does not belong to us.

 

We should all have our own hopes and dreams. Pursue your own dreams, not your neighbors. What belongs to your neighbor is your neighbors. What is yours is yours.

 

The second table of the law is summed up like this: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt 22:39; Mark 12:31) :May God grant that our neighbors would love us enough not to craftily seek to obtain our inheritance or home even as we would not pursue obtaining theirs. 

 

God's Peace - Pr. J

Luke 1:39-56 - Sharing and Caring

Luke 1:38-56 NIV
There are times in our lives when we truly need a friend. We need to be able to sit back and share our joys, our sorrows, our hopes and dreams, even our fears with someone who cares.

Mary went to see her cousin Elizabeth. They could relate to one another. They had something in common. They had something to share with each other. They were both to bear very unusual children. Elizabeth would bear John the Baptist, the one who would announce our Savior's coming into the world. Mary would give birth to Jesus, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.

May God grant that we should all have someone to share our lives with; our joys, our sorrows, our hopes and dreams, and even our fears.

God's Peace - Pr. J