"Secondly, under this commandment not only he is guilty who does evil to his neighbor, but he also who can do him good, prevent, resist evil, defend and save him, so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him, and yet does not do it. If, therefore, you send away one that is naked when you could clothe him, you have caused him to freeze to death; if you see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. So also, if you see any one innocently sentenced to death or in like distress, and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. And it will not avail you to make the pretext that you did not afford any help, counsel, or aid thereto, for you have withheld your love from him and deprived him of the benefit whereby his life would have been saved."
Everyone has sinned and violated this commandment at the very least by our sins of omission, as Luther's phrase "and yet does not do it" clearly indicates. No room for spiritual pride (all these I have kept since my yourth!) among the members of the body of Christ. How desperately we need to turn to God and change the way we think and act. Lord, have mercy upon us!
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