Which is more important to know spiritual truth or to be compassionate towards God's creation?

Question

I ask this question in response to people who think knowing and agreeing with there religions metaphysical ideas is more important than focusing on loving there neighbor as themselves. For many it is about the fear of hell, or being in judgment of others than it is about true caring itself. I believe God couldn’t give two hoots about our metaphysical ideas of him/her/it compared to how we treat should treat creation, from our spiritual hearts.

Maurice H, being compassionate to God creation is a spiritual truth. In fact it is the most important one of them all. There is plenty of times to figure out the rest of them.

princezelph, you missed the spirit of the question which in either case is more important than the law.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." Corinthians 13:2

I am very surprised nobody especially the Christians cited this. I am not even a Christian and this was the first passage that came to mind. Oh well, I hope those that read this will gain a measure of enlightenment.

Answer 1

Living with compassion, in my opinion.

Many people do not believe in God, but they still take very seriously their desire to make the world a better place by being good human beings and treating others well.

And for those who are religious, if they aren't living with compassion, they have completely missed the boat on the message of religion. Compassionate behavior is one of the central tenets of all religions, as far as I know.

And one other thing I believe is that those who truly seek, but have not found what they are looking for as far as religion or life's great metaphysical questions, can often find what they are looking for through living the compassionate life. Taking the focus off yourself and paying attention to others often brings great, undreamed of rewards. I am not talking about money, or fame, but rather spiritual rewards. So for my money, it's compassion, every time :)

Answer 2

God gives a hoot because God offered us a gift. He holds it out to us awaiting our acceptance of it. This is the gift of salvation--if you haven't already discerned what I'm talking about.

Without salvation, there is no hope for humankind. So being compassionate towards humans is worthless, except for its own sake, without acceptance of salvation. That is, we can act this way and act that way and feel this way and feel that way, but it matters not a whit if we are not living in God's grace.

I'll try to be clearer by using a way imperfect analogy. Let's presume that you want to become an attorney. In order to get a degree, you first have to be accepted by the law school. If you haven't been accepted and made part of the college, you can sit in classes all you want; you can study like the dickens; you can take the tests. But when you go to the bar, they will say, "Um, you don't have a degree, so you can't be tested by the bar." You might say, "But I took all the classes. I even took the tests. I did extremely well." And they'll say, "Okayyyyyy, and your diploma is where, exactly?"

What you would have been doing was attending classes and taking tests for their own sake. Sure, you might have learned something, and you might have measured up, but if you want to be an attorney, it has all been for naught.

This is because you weren't part of the college.

If you are not part of the body of Christ, anything that you do that may be "Christ-like" is for naught. It has no purpose, except its own sake. It is just acting and saying and thinking...with no higher authority than yourself and/or other people.

The fact is that you have to accept salvation in order to become part of the body of Christ, so that what you do will have purpose. It will have a very clear purpose, and you will have a divine director.

Otherwise, you're just biding time.

Answer 3

What is spiritual truth and God's creation in the first place? Consider this when it comes to truths.

If we assume the universe was created, then it’s reasonable to assume there was a creator. That’s as far as science has progressed today, but just look how far religion has progressed.

Religion states (fact) there was a creator called God, that God still exists, God also created places called Heaven & Hell, God wrote an instruction book called the Bible, God will banish evil people to Hell, God will send good people who follow the Bible to heaven, that people referred to in the Bible (like Jesus) will return to Earth, and a whole raft of other statements of fact. That’s right, religious fact, not assumptions.

Now tell me truthfully, if science doesn’t even know yet whether the universe was created or not, but religious believers state: “not only was the universe created by God, here’s a whole lot more proof and facts to go with it, what do you think?

Either religious believers just have vivid imaginations or suffer from a common mental illness. I think commonsense and logic would suggest that religious believers are mentally handicapped.

I think the truth is that religious believers suffer from a common mental illness.

Answer 4

To know spiritual truth is nothing if you do not put action to it. What good is knowledge if it is preached but not acted upon?

Compassion is perhaps only one of the many fruits that come about when putting the spiritual truth into action. Compassion is derived out of Love.

God is LOVE and to love requires actions or many fruits. Love is kind, love is patient, mercyful, forgiving, compassionate..... and so on. Yes, God gives a hoot. He would like for us to live with him in heaven. That is why he has sent the prophets to teach us of his love. To live with God in heaven we must be one, therefore he would like for us to grow into loving human beings.

Answer 5

First of all, God has a name. Next, God as some have posted is not sending anyone to hell or too heaven. Humans are doing that themselves by their action and non-actions a/k/a their works.
Both items listed in the question are very important. We should not walk in the flesh.

Answer 6

I don't know much about metaphysical.

I don't care for philosophy.

Understanding what your particular organization stands for is good in that you will then be without excuse.

What I do now is this. If you know truth you will know love.

For true love to your neighbors you must understand truth.

You cannot understand truth without the Spirit.

You cannot have the Spirit with out being saved.

Therefore the conclusion is that to love your neighbor properly, you must be saved.

Answer 7

Your own answer could not be any better.

Religion a lot of the times (churches) give people a cop-out, an excuse to be bad just so they could go to church and ask forgiveness, when they should not be doing anything bad in the first place.
Our bodies are our churches where our soul could reach God. How? Like how we treat earth and its things, including people.
Like...the Gnostic's.

Answer 8

You can't do one with out the other, how can you know spiritual truths if you aren't compassionate towards His creations? It's impossible. Or how can you feel compassion towards His creations without knowing spiritual truths? Again you can't.

Answer 9

To be spiritual, is to be compassionate toward God's creation. You can't be spiritual like Christ unless you have compassion.

Answer 10

The divine is a part of us and we are a part of the divine. Religion is nothing more than a creation of "man" in order to control the masses and achieve dominance over secular matters.

Which should you trust?