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11 October 2024
As someone trying to live by MSL, how should I approach attempting to elicit virtues in other people? Which ones should I worry about?
(This list may be incomplete.)
These are the virtues that I can expect of just about anyone, of any religious/spiritual persuasion:
Pursue moral excellence. People's ideas of what moral excellence entails may not overlap with mine 100%, so maybe I would emphasize the things that do overlap.
Have a good relationship with morality itself. Have the sort of relationship to moral excellence that can lead to eventually choosing to be 100% morally excellent.
Seek the truth.
Be openminded. Particularly such that, if presented the evidence for Jesus, one would believe in him. (Or whoever God turns out to be.)
In addition to the "meta" ones, these are ones I can expect of MSLians, maybe some others:
Minimize sexuality and anger.
Be against unbearability.
Try to be productive. Generally that means finding work and doing it as much and as long as you can, maintaining a sufficiently high quality of work (which may require taking breaks and moderating workload). But, if you have no other choice, pursue the cross, risk yourself even to the point of losing ability to work if it's the most effective thing you can do / is truly necessary.
Put God first.
Bear burdens.
Believe that God exists. (Internalize MSL or other reasons to believe in God.) Apply the fact that God exists wherever relevant.
This is what I would expect of MSLians who seemingly have "run out of things to do" in the "meta" and "MSL-specific" categories, at least directionally.
Pursue things that could reasonably be inferred are preferences of God, given the Bible. (If they aren't covered by the "meta" or "MSL-specific" categories above.) I don't know exactly what I would say in this category, and won't know for a while (until I do the work to read the Bible with this question in mind, which could be a number of years from now).