Thanks a lot Sab!!
It continues:
My response:
I am not going to the meetings out of discouragement. I want my family to love me. It starts there first. I am not interested in empty "words of concern." I want real actions of love. The help I've needed has been the same for years. There is nothing new. Of course I would accept help and encouragement. As I define.
Thanks for your interest in helping, but the problem isn't you, so your help won't fix it. It may help a little, but the problem will remain. The elders can't help with the problem, if you can't. They too, are not the problem, so how can they fix it? Why do you need to know that I will still be close to Jehovah and his people? Is your love conditional? I am very surprised. I hear offers of help but after I pass some sort of examination. Must I qualify for love???
Remember the good samaritan. The good samaritan is a great tale. In it, we learn what it means to really be "good" and to qualify for life. It is all about love. Unconditional love. After all, Jesus said you must even "love your enemies" so certainly, there is no qualifier for love. Everyone gets it if you are a Christian. Jesus dealt that way. He loved, touched, and gave physical and emotional help to those who really needed it. Were they attending at the temple? Were they somehow "qualifying" for his love? The lepers and the woman with the flow were ceremonially shunned. So they certainly couldn't go worship at the temple or do any of the other ceremonially holy things. Yet Jesus still loved them. And in REAL ways. He didn't "encourage" them, be quoting some scriptures and telling them they should go to the temple. He gave they what THEY NEEDED. As they defined.
Also, Jesus was raised in a religious culture where his religious guides taught him to shun people, not even talk to them, nor touch them (so no loving supportive converstation, nor hugs) if they were not deemed "clean." But Jesus overthrew all of that. He touched them, offered them real practical help, and gave them emotional support. He showed LOVE. And love conquers all, even rituals and rules. But, what about the good samaritan? That tale is yet another emphasis on love conquering supposed lables of "clean," "holy" etc. Remember, Jesus said the two greatest commands were to love God and to love your neighbor, and the man whom he was speaking with was already a practicing Jew. So, he should've already "qualified" for life according to his religious belief system. But, Jesus was there to change all that. He emphasized that it wasn't your title or your religion that made you qualify for life. It was your DEEDS.
The man asked "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" So Jesus asked him what the law said, and he answered you must love God and your neighbor. But, wanting to justify himself, he asked "Who really is my neighbor?" Meaning, "who REALLY do I need to love, To inherit everlasting life?"
Did Jesus answer: "Those ceremonially clean are the ones you should love. Avoid the unclean ones." Meaning, love members of your own religion, but anyone else "unclean" you are under no obligation. After all, you must avoid them to remain clean." Were there any qualifiers?
Take a look at the story Jesus used to teach about what it takes to qualify for life. The levites, on their way to SERVE AT THE TEMPLE, were shown as nonloving, and therefore disqualified for life. And yet, the Samaritan, whom all the Jews believed were not only dirty, unclean people, but also disinherited by God and worthy of destruction, as they had set up their own apostate (different from the Jews) form of worship, was shown as the one doing DEEDS OF LOVE. He is the one who qualified, who acted "neighborly."
So, what does that tell you? Distinctions such as "clean" and "unclean" died with Jesus. Conditional love died with Jesus. Those were the old ways, not Christ's ways. Jesus in fact, was the opposite. He showed love to everyone, whether they were "clean worshippers of God" or not. Remember the Samaritan woman at the well? She was given knowledge of Christ's identity. Why, to an APOSTATE, even!
Clearly, Jesus did not shun anyone, rather associating with everyone and giving practical loving assistance to all who needed it. And he gave that as the requirement for life, and the sign of his true followers.
So, was Jesus for or against conditional love? Remember, Jesus made quite a distinction regarding who qualifies for life and who is TRULY SHOWING LOVE, by contrasting a holy levite priest with a lowly, detested, despicable APOSTATE Samaritan. The one SHOWING LOVE, regardless of whether he was even an apostate, was the one Jesus approved.
Luke 10:25-37 (New International Version)
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[a]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b]"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10: 25-37)