You may be right, but a few more data points to consider.
Paul thought his collections for the saints in Jerusalem was a very important part of his ministry. He exhorted the Gentile churches to send money to Jerusalem in almost all of his letters.
Christ’s commandment in John 15 is “Love one another as I have loved you.” The rest of the Johannine literature, I think, suggests this is a special duty to love other Christians (a new form of partiality).
Geographic proximity may not be important, but there may also be a special duty to lay one’s life down for other Christians.
Were in a little bit of a tangent but an interesting one I think. I’ve heard that idea before about special obligation towards christians, but I’ve never found it very compelling—less for strict theological reasons and more for emotional, philosophical, and commonsense morality reasons (my common sense may differ from others’ of course).
I’m much more moved by the story of the Good Samaritan or Jesus’ instruction to care for the least of these than Paul’s exhortations.
You may be right, but a few more data points to consider.
Paul thought his collections for the saints in Jerusalem was a very important part of his ministry. He exhorted the Gentile churches to send money to Jerusalem in almost all of his letters.
Christ’s commandment in John 15 is “Love one another as I have loved you.” The rest of the Johannine literature, I think, suggests this is a special duty to love other Christians (a new form of partiality).
Geographic proximity may not be important, but there may also be a special duty to lay one’s life down for other Christians.
Were in a little bit of a tangent but an interesting one I think. I’ve heard that idea before about special obligation towards christians, but I’ve never found it very compelling—less for strict theological reasons and more for emotional, philosophical, and commonsense morality reasons (my common sense may differ from others’ of course).
I’m much more moved by the story of the Good Samaritan or Jesus’ instruction to care for the least of these than Paul’s exhortations.
But I also don’t put that much stock in what Paul says relative to other Christians (https://www.modelsandmorality.com/blog/st-paul-was-just-some-guy-so-hes-not-always-right).