I think that although there are many permutations and combinations of Christian love, the ideal type of love is to love in a self-sacrificing way, the way God loved the world: “16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16-17).” Paul makes the same point when he writes: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32).”
Self sacrifice has as its essence: “thinking of others before thinking of yourself.” Hence, Paul says love “does not seek its own (1 Corinthians 13:5).” The meaning of the Cross: I think the idea is that just as God gave the best part of Himself for humanity, so too should we give the best parts of ourselves to benefit humanity. We should act toward others out of a spirit of compassion, good will, and charity.
Maybe I’m misremembering something (see what I did there? Prof Ehrman’s new book is on memory!), but I recall reading once that one of the great Jewish rabbis once said something to the effect that the most important aspect of Judaism is to love your neighbor as yourself and that everything else was corollary from there. If you think about it this is absolutely correct. Every commandment that God gave the Israelites derives from this. This same philosophy is echoed in Mark 12:30-31 where a scribe sees Jesus debating/arguing with some Saducees and asks Jesus what the most important commandment was. Jesus replied that first one is to love God with all your heart/mind/body/strength and secondly to love your neighbor as yourself. Everything follows from there and I think this is a lesson that not just Christians today, but everyone for that matter, is virtually oblivious to.
Don’t let a fundy hear you say that! Seriously though, regardless of how you view it or extrapolate it or project it I think that if the sentiment is used to it’s ultimate potential that nothing gets more to the heart of what “love” is than “love your neighbor as yourself”.
gmatthews said
Don’t let a fundy hear you say that! Seriously though, regardless of how you view it or extrapolate it or project it I think that if the sentiment is used to it’s ultimate potential that nothing gets more to the heart of what “love” is than “love your neighbor as yourself”.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3 & 4)
Notice with that last quote from Paul is the strong ethical mandate that we should be there for others just like God is there for us. This is part of Paul’s mission of love.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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