{"id":13569,"date":"2026-10-25T19:54:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/?page_id=13569"},"modified":"2026-10-25T19:54:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:54:05","slug":"spectators-saturday-october-31-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/spectators-saturday-october-31-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Spectators\u00a0– Saturday, October 31, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? – 1 John 3:17<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday, I caught a classic episode of the western Gunsmoke<\/em> titled \u201cChesterland.\u201d In it, Matt Dillon\u2019s well-meaning deputy, Chester Goode, falls head over heels in love and sets out to become a farmer. What makes the episode so entertaining\u2014besides Chester\u2019s hilarious, futile attempts to till barren land and rebuild a dilapidated shack\u2014is a visit from a neighbor offering assistance. However, this man\u2019s objective isn\u2019t to help, but to watch and criticize.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a difference between seeing a need and offering help and constructive criticism, and watching and doing nothing but criticize. This type of contrasting behavior is recorded in the Bible.\u00a0 The first is Jesus\u2019 description of unbiased kindness in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37, when the man saw a need and rendered help. \u00a0The second is what Nehemiah and his helpers experienced while rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls from spectators who did nothing more than mock and criticize them (Nehemiah 4:1-3).<\/p>\n

Interestingly, one of the most positively referenced figures in the Bible is the Good Samaritan, whose character perfectly aligned with Jesus\u2019 nature. However, the spectators Nehemiah encountered weren\u2019t granted that same respect\u2014proving that sitting on the sidelines ultimately doesn\u2019t pay off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? – 1 John 3:17 Yesterday, I caught a classic episode of the western Gunsmoke titled \u201cChesterland.\u201d In it, Matt Dillon\u2019s well-meaning deputy, Chester Goode, falls head … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Spectators\u00a0– Saturday, October 31, 2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13569","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13571,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13569\/revisions\/13571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}