Comments on: Two Great Commandments

By: TonyD

TonyD — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:27:03 +0000

I think the two greatest commandments are very misunderstood. Everyone has a different definition of “love your neighbor.” The most common mistake I see (and make) is insufficient consideration of others values.

Ignoring someone’s values, even if they disagree with God’s values, is an example of ignoring God’s values.

Is there some way to allow a person to live his values while you live yours? Similarly, I don’t consider it acceptable to ignore the values of society as a whole (to the extent they reflect the true values of your society – as opposed to laws created by “special interests” with no real support by society). Judgment soon enters the picture.

Really, I could go on. I consider “love your neighbor” to be an “intention”. This then brings up “intention” vs. “outcome” with the associated understanding of “love your neighbor”. I would argue that, in general, intention is more important than outcome. If you think about it, this impacts your interaction with all aspects of this existence.

Sorry if I got too esoteric…

Thanks for the post.

By: John C.

John C. — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:25:51 +0000

Eric,
I don’t disagee, but I’ve encountered a fair number of people (myself included) who don’t seem to see the lack of distinction.

By: Eric Russell

Eric Russell — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:06:59 +0000

It seems to me that the great problem of human existence is not the question of how to perfect one’s self, but rather the problem of how to love someone who is flawed.

They’re the same thing, John.

By: Thomas Parkin

Thomas Parkin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:57:43 +0000

Great stuff, John.

As to the goodness of humanity, I don’t believe in it one bit. I don’t believe in total depravity, obviously. I think BKP hit a bullseye when he said, speaking of our nature, some of it is good and some of it bad. But I have yet to know a person well who isn’t doing active harm to himself and others, maybe unwittingly, possibly in ways he is totally blind to – lying a little, especially to himself, cheating, digging a pit for his neighbor. I trust God, and I also trust folks – but in the latter case it is against, at least in my life, pretty overwhelming evidence from which I hardly exclude myself. That doesn’t mean I don’t find people lovable. In fact, I find them worthy of all sorts of mercy.

This is how I define good and evil for myself:

Whatever tends to enable, entice, encourage or actuate a person or people towards their fullest possible expression of life tends to be good; whatever tends to discourage a person or people, or blind to, or hinder from actuating their fullest possible expression on life tends to be evil. ~

By: Molly in the Jello Belt

Molly in the Jello Belt — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:36:36 +0000

I’ve been struggling with repentance, forgiveness and love. An idea that has helped me is to realize that if I want to accept Christ and be forgiven for my own sins, I need to turn everyone else’s sins over to Christ too. In other words, I can’t hold a grudge. I can’t hang on to hurt because I’m worried that Christ won’t punish them enough. If I want to be forgiven, I need to acknowledge that anyone else can be forgiven too and that’s between them and Christ, not them and me.

This works into loving my neighbor as I love God because as I forgive and forgive again, I trust God’s goodness, mercy and justice more and more. I don’t have to judge my neighbor anymore, or hate them, because God is in charge of their punishment and repentance. Because I’m not judging them, I can see them as another child of God, and accept them. For me, that’s been the key to learning to love people who have hurt me and my loved ones, and is still hurting them.

And I liked Jim #8′s paragraph about how God loves us because he is good, not as a result of our actions.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:53:09 +0000

I think becoming capable of loving people who, for instance, have been cruel to ones I love, is something beyond all my ability to try. Somehow, though, when I try hard, fail, then pray for help and try again, I find that my nature has been changed a little. Not from my own doing, but by God. It seems that he can perfect us but only if we try hard ourselves and then ask him for his help becoming someone else than we are, someone who is better than we are, someone who can love.

I know that doesn’t really make sense. But I don’t make the rules, I just try to figure them out. =)

By: John C.

John C. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:23:09 +0000

Rob,
As far as I can tell, God doesn’t usually qualify his commandments by telling us to worry about certain aspects only after we are dead. I don’t see why this would be an exception to that.

Geoff,
I think that little contradiction probably tells you all you need to know about me and my personal theology. Good means Good (also, not Bad), but beyond that I have a very hard time defining it.

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:10:17 +0000

God, as I understand him, is Good and, therefore, incomprehensible to me.

Hehe. The “as I understand him” is an amusing touch here.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:13:44 +0000

Also, when we realize that our love is less than perfect, I think we sometimes approach our need to love more perfectly in somewhat counter-productive ways. We might try to perfect our love out of sheer willpower, like we would try to accomplish some physical feat. While I believe that loving perfectly requires conscious effort, I also think that it comes naturally out of who we are- somewhat of a contradiction that perhaps someone else can clarify.

But it is clear that God loves not because we are lovable but because He is capable of loving us. It is from His goodness, not ours. His love for us is not a reaction to what we do- it is always there. Somehow we too need to learn to love others not because of their lovability or out of a reaction to what they do but out of our love-filled hearts.

By: Tracy M

Tracy M — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:41:35 +0000

It’s hard, but it is what we’re asked to do. Dang. Now I have to go off and think.