These are the things you shall do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace; let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor; and do not love a false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ Says the LORD.” Zechariah 8:16-17
Neighbors are not only those who live in our area, they are anyone we interact with on a regular basis. Our neighbors see us day in and day out. They see how we handle our affairs, be it good and godly, or not so good. How we deal with our neighbors reflects on our Christian walk and our Heavenly Father.
Here in Zechariah, God tells us how we should interact with our neighbors. We are told three times in these two verses to tell the truth. We are also to uphold justice and peace in our dealings. God hates it when we don’t follow these guidelines, although we must remember it is our actions and not us that He hates.
Bartering is a useful skill and the people we trade with will see how we go about it. If we are always trying to get the upper hand in all our dealings, others will see us in this light. These verses speak directly to preppers, since we are more likely to be dealing directly with our neighbors. There is nothing wrong with getting the best deal possible, but go about it honestly.
While being an honest trader is a worthy ambition, we must also love justice and peace. If you are cheated, do not be tempted to retaliate. Simply refuse to deal with that person in the future. It is like telling your child to walk away from a bully. Let God handle the things He hates.
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Today in Christian History
May 25th
1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile captured Toledo, Spain, and brought the Moorish center of science into Christian hands.
1521 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V pronounced Martin Luther an outlaw and heretic for refusing to recant his teachings while at the Diet of Worms (held the previous month).
1793 – Stephen T. Badin, 25, was ordained in Baltimore, MD ÀÀ the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the newly independent United States of America. Badin afterward served as a frontier missionary, and played a key role in establishing Catholicism in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee during the early nineteenth century.
1824 – The American Sunday School Union was established in Philadelphia. It pledged itself: (1) to circulate appropriate literature in every part of the land; (2) to secure a unity of evangelistic effort; and (3) to plant a Sunday School wherever there was a population.
1876 – The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland (org. 1743) united with the Free Church of Scotland (org. 1843) to form the new Free Church of Scotland. (In 1929 the Free Church merged with the Mother Church, afterward retaining the name Church of Scotland.)
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Source of Today in Christian History: www.studylight.org [1]