West of Mayberry

Day 11- A Bible Verse:

If I am a disappointment in any way to my Granny, it’s that I am not a church-goer.  I haven’t been since I was a teenager. I became disillusioned with organized religion because of the behavior and attitudes of leaders of churches, famous and not.  There seemed to be¹ very little practicing of the preaching.

Consequently, I don’t know the Bible very well.

So I had to search around for a quote.

And I found one.

Ephesians 4:2

“Be humble and gentle in every way. Be patient with each other and lovingly accept each other.”

That’s a translation from a contemporary bible.

The King James version writes it as ” With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.”

I know a lot of people think that the King James Bible is the only real bible, and should not be translated into modern language.  Somehow they missed the fact that King James is a translation, itself.  I may not know much about the Bible, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t originally written in English.

But, back to the quote:

“Be humble and gentle in every way. Be patient with each other and lovingly accept each other.”

Basically, be a nice person and treat everybody with respect.

It’s how I try to live my life.

I’m not always successful.  No one can be a hundred percent of the time.  We’re only human. Yet, we seem to be losing our grip on basic human decency.

It seems like, more and more, so many folks don’t even make the attempt.

Things as simple as agreeing to disagree went out the window long ago.

We are a race of individuals, so we are never going to all see eye-to-eye.

But I wonder if we will ever see the value in each other.

{ fin }

1. and continues to be [↩]

§ 8 Responses to 30+ Day Challenge, Part Eleven"

• Rick says:

  January 24, 2011 at 6:52 am

  A good quote to live by. I agree, way too many translations.
• brian says:

  January 24, 2011 at 8:51 am

  Value is so true.
  Everyone has value.
  Evil exists,but value makes it pale by comparison.
  Like you said,no one is perfect,but I could never accept spiritual advice from someone with a southern accent.
  My bad!
• Sue says:

  January 24, 2011 at 11:02 am

  If there is anyplace in America to cure one of religion quickly it is the South. I am a recovering Catholic, but when I lived in Georgia for a summer, I experienced more religious hypocrisy just going door-to-door! People who felt for sure that they were going to be saved, yet were the worst bigots on the planet and would gladly shoot an African American just for standing on their doorstep! Drunk and philandering “good” Christians were everywhere! If that didn’t challenge one’s beliefs, I don’t know what would!

  But you’ve chosen a fabulous quote there Tony! If the entire world followed that one, there would be no more wars. If only. It just takes one person at a time!
• Chris says:

  January 24, 2011 at 5:42 pm

  Nice quote Tony, I’m sure you got the point across. Its up to us all to remember that quote and others we like and to try to live up to them.
• Curtis says:

  January 24, 2011 at 7:04 pm

  Colossians 3:13
  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
• Bart says:

  January 24, 2011 at 7:14 pm

  You can take the ‘pretty sure’ out, lol!

  Koine Greek New Testament and Hebrew and some Aramaic (I think) in the Old Testament.

  Here’s how the verse you chose was more or less originally written –
  μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης καὶ πραΰτητος, μετὰ μακροθυμίας ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων ἐν ἀγάπῃ
• Will says:

  January 25, 2011 at 2:16 pm

  Would that many , many more Christians actually lived according to that clear and simple advice.
• Steve says:

  February 28, 2011 at 1:13 pm

  I live by the quote “DO NO HARM” for every aspect of my life but pancakes, I rip those suckers apart.