Proverbs 14:31 · World English Bible
Proverbs 14:31 Meaning He Who Oppresses the Poor Shows Contempt
He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.
What does Proverbs 14:31 mean?
To attack the one who seems to have less is to strike at the Love that made both, for a mind cannot condemn another without condemning the same Source they share. The ego chooses the weak as an easy place to set down its guilt, certain that pressing another lower will lift itself, yet every such attack is really aimed at the wholeness the attacker forgot in himself.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 14:31 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
To attack the one who seems to have less is to strike at the Love that made both, for a mind cannot condemn another without condemning the same Source they share. The ego chooses the weak as an easy place to set down its guilt, certain that pressing another lower will lift itself, yet every such attack is really aimed at the wholeness the attacker forgot in himself.
Mercy toward the poor is the correction, not a favor granted from above but the recognition that the other is innocent and one with oneself. A mind that honors its Maker sees no one beneath it, and in refusing to condemn the lowly it releases the very guilt it once threw outward.
The poor: the one the mind judges to have less and marks as the easy place to lay its guilt, in truth its own self seen as lacking Maker: the shared Source of every mind, reproached whenever one part of the whole attacks another
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Live Proverbs 14:31 today
- When you catch yourself sizing someone up today, by their clothes, their accent, their job, stop and let the ranking drop. You do not have to replace it with anything.
- Be unhurried with the person serving you today, at the register, on the phone, at the counter. Look up, use their name if you can see it, mean the thank you.
- When you are late and someone slow is in your way, let them be slow. Your schedule is not a reason for them to be smaller.
Who have you been quietly placing below you, and what does that cost you?
The same truth in other traditions
Hinduism · Upanishads
The same self looks out of every pair of eyes. To hold someone beneath you is to misunderstand who you are.
Judaism · Hillel
What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That one line carries the whole of it, and the rest is commentary.
Buddhism
Treat every being as you would your only child. Kindness that picks and chooses is not yet kindness.
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