Devotional Thoughts: Love thy neighbor even in cyberspace

Have been thinking about the time I spent at GodBlogCon.

For me the bottom line appeared to be, and apparently a thought picked up by others, is the need for us to have no difference between our real life person and our online person.

The 7 virtues (4 classic and 3 Christian) of temperance, prudence, courage, justice, faith, hope, and love are of real value in real life than they must apply to our online life. For in the end, our online life is real too. I'm real at this end of the computer and the person reading at the other end is real too. The only difference is that instead of my words traveling through sound waves, my words travel through electronic digits. In real life I seek to be thoughtful and gracious. I hope I am on the internet as well.

Thus, I must bring my participation in the virtual world under Jesus and under the real world command of Jesus to love my neighbor.

In the past, before the internet, our neighbor was the person next door, the co-worker, family, friends and people we meet incidentally as we go about our daily lives. Now, we can add to our neighborhood, people we know in cyberspace. All the moral demands of our faith still apply.

Let's say it again ..

Who is my neighbor?
Physical - the person next door
Vocational - the people I work with
Biological - my family immediate and extended
Volitional - those whom I choose as friends
Incidental - people I bump into as I go about my life
Virtual - those I come in contact with through the internet

Moral demands of Jesus apply and are not optional.