(March 15, 2014 at 12:26 pm)Tonus Wrote: "Treat others as you would like to be treated" works so long as the other party does the same. "Do good to those who spitefully use you" simply rewards them for harming you. Otherwise they rely on faith in a force that can balance out results according to merit (although that creates its own issues for those who believe that we cannot earn anything on merit with god).
"Do not harm those who do you no harm" or "do good to those who deserve it" is a much better ideal to start from, in that it allows us freedom to help those we choose and is more likely to lead to helping those who deserve it while avoiding those whose actions harm us. It also frees us from feeling guilty over things like thought-crime by prioritizing behavior and outcomes.
''Give what you get,'' is a pretty minimalist way to live, though. I think that if I'm only kind to those who are kind to me, what might that say about me? I do agree however, that I don't bother with people anymore who are not kind to me. But, I try to take a 'leap of faith' no pun,and give them the benefit of the doubt, until they show me that they can't be trusted, etc...THEN, I turn my back.
It is liberating to live this way, now. Enabling people's bad behaviors is really what Christianity breeds, sadly. How many times do women stay in abusive marriages because they are Christian? They are taught to 'turn the other cheek' and forgive over and over. But, the other person isn't changing. So, yea. Use good judgement is probably the best approach in life, to dealing with all people.
