.
I believe God has a right to pick his friends just the same as anybody else.
Well; judging from several of Jesus' lectures, there are certain personality
types with whom God does not care to associate, and one of those types is
found in folks who lack the milk of human kindness.
When we get right down to it, the rich man went to the wrong side of the
afterlife not especially for anything he did, rather, because he's callous.
• Matt 5:7 . . Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Christ wasn't talking about forgiveness in that beatitude. The word for
"merciful" is eleemon (el-eh-ay'-mone) which means: compassionate (as an
adjective). And the word for "mercy" is eleeo (el-eh-eh'-o) which means: to
pity (as a verb).
So then, what Christ says is: if somebody is by nature cruel, hard hearted,
thoughtless, and insensitive; then they will get no sympathy from God.
NOTE: A contemporary example of the rich man's attitude towards lesser
fortunate souls than himself is North Korea's Kim Jong-Un: a dictator who
squanders billions on national defense while the growth of something like 30
to 40 percent of his citizen's children are stunted by malnutrition.
Adequate health care is available only to a relatively privileged few. There
are hospitals in North Korea without electricity and medications. Potable
water is another scarcity in North Korea; and fresh meats. Some people
there are actually subsisting on frogs, mice, dragon flies. and locusts. The
meanwhile, Kim has the best of everything; he's doing just fine.
You know, were North Koreans not forced to respect Kim under the penalty
of death, torture, and/or imprisonment, I seriously doubt anybody would.
Well; just you wait till Kim arrives in the netherworld. No doubt numbers of
people down there can hardly wait for a chance to scratch his eyes out.
I've heard it from ex felons that prison itself is not so bad. It's the society
inside that makes prison a living hell. Well; I just wish I could be on-site
down below for Kim's home-coming. I expect people down there will be all
over him like hungry ants on a grasshopper.
_