Loving our neighbors?
Lately, I have seen some use the Jesus quote of loving our
neighbor as ourselves out of context, and that is fine. I have been using the
quote for decades. In fact, the quote has been in the New Testament for almost
2000 years. Yes, Jesus was not exclusive. Jesus was inclusive. Jesus basically
was saying to love everyone. Love people, regardless of race, or gender
orientation, and so on. I am sure we all get the picture. But, I wonder if
people understand that this is a double-edged sword depending on how we apply
it. Why is that, one might ask? Well, basically in today's seemingly polarized
society, which I don't think is really so polarized because it's all mostly
media hype, loving our neighbor also means loving those with different
political views...etc. For instance, left wingers have to love right wingers,
and right wingers have to love left wingers. Meaning, people who hate Trump
have to love him, and so on. Nonracist people have to love racist people, etc.
I am sure everyone gets the picture. Basically, everyone is our neighbor. Jesus
hung out with everyone, and he made no exceptions. Of course, he told everyone
the truth. When he spoke to Pharisees, he said what he had to say. I am pretty
much done explaining. Blessings and go out and love your neighbor as yourself!
Of course, remember that loving God precedes the phrase.
Source:
Unifying the Faith: Loving our neighbors?
This post was originally published on my ecumenism blog on Saturday, July 7, 2018.
ReplyDeleteAllow to make a correction, although this isn't a theology blog. Technically, the 27 book canon of the New Testament wasn't official until the Council of Hippo in 393. The list had been already placed in a letter by Saint Althanasius previously in the year 367.
ReplyDelete