Love is Alive

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"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13: 8 – 10)
It’s understandable that we would arrive at the conclusion that if Christ were to bundle all the laws into one neat package as he did in Matthew 22: 32 – 39,i that the Christian life would be much simpler, God’s will much clearer. In this passage, Jesus clearly says that there really is only one commandment to know, that is the one enunciated in the Jewish Shema Yisrael: "the Lord our God, the LORD is one" and further that, in essence, that age-old adage common to most religions of the world is its fulfillment: Love your neighbor as yourself. 

Turns out, though, it’s not a simplification at all.
I find it really discouraging that in the Christian church—particularly in Evangelical branches thereof—the principle that making it our life’s calling to enhance and enlarge the well-being of our neighbours is again being discarded and doctrinal nuances dragged to the fore as being additional laws to the one, the great one. Our nature fights against the one great commandment; the impulse to kick the neighbour’s behind is embedded in our biology, a biology that dictates that we survive, and that to do so we must conquer our neighbour, not love him.
It’s the most pertinent, relevant meaning of the “born again” principle that it’s not nearly as much about buying a ticket to a heaven that’s somewhere out there in the sky, by and by; it’s about being transformed from our evolutionary instincts and impulses to learn and embrace a new, surprising revelation: we survive and thrive best when we love our neighbours—even when our instincts tell us we need to blow them up with the 'Mother of All Bombs.'

Quite obviously, seeing love as the means to tame the savagery of ISIL, for instance, seems absurd. But the Kingdom of God is by definition, absurd. It’s an upside down kingdom.

The Ten Commandments were given to help us curb the evolutionary urges that are counter-productive. A people who murder one another, steal from each other, abandon their marriage vows for selfish ends, etc. are doomed to social disruption and chaos. People who love God and their neighbours, on the other hand, don’t need to have these rules enunciated anymore; their habitual, daily conduct fulfills every commandment.

Theoretically.

The current breakup of churches in my denomination is a direct consequence of our failure to trust in the power of the great commandment. The present impasses are highlighted by the controversy over same-gender marriage. Taken purely anthropologically/sociologically, the marrying of two men or two women seems odd, and the exercise of the legalist’s approach to it easily triumphs. But the great commandment is clear: the love of God “with all our hearts and souls” is realized in the love for our neighbours. And in the parable of the Good Samaritan, we learn that "the neighbour" is not bound by "next door." 

There is no “notwithstanding clause” attached to Jesus’ and Paul’s admonitions on this subject, no “except in the case of those born gay or lesbian or transgendered or Muslim or Republican or Mormon or Arab, when the love principle may be suspended in favour of the usurping of God’s prerogative to exercise judgment.”
Churches, denominations never break up once the great commandment has been absorbed and made central to every act, every word, every day. Such fellowships know intuitively that the tie that binds them is not called “agreement;” the glue is love. And where love is the binder, agreement will eventually follow. This is the promise of the gospel. 

Happy Easter! Christ is alive. Love is alive. 

i (Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself)

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 20, 2017 at 7:42 AM

    Thanks again George. This is the heart of the matter. But our evolutionary-survival instincts and most of our training moves us to best our neighbour rather than to love him. But we won't survive, let alone thrive, if we continue down that road.

    ReplyDelete

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