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I was recently at a graduation ceremony where there was a speaker who was a minister of another church (he never actually said which, and I don’t recall if the program said). He was addressing the graduates about their future responsibilities as leaders and looking after those they will be assigned to lead. One of the things he said stood out to me. He said loving your neighbor doesn’t mean you have to be their best buddy and you don’t really even have to like them, and you don’t have to give them the coat off your back. He said loving your neighbor is more about hoping for the best for everyone, even if you don’t like them very much. I can deal with that. I like it as well. It goes with how Father Tim (from Jan Karon’s “Mitford” series) defines forgiveness as “giving up my right to hurt you because you hurt me”.
– Basically taking vengeance/revenge/retaliation off the proverbial table.
My challenge is that 95% of the time when someone brings up the two great commandments at church it’s really code speak for telling people not to be too accepting of people in the LGBT community. They want to make sure people understand that loving god (the commandments as they understand them) comes before loving your neighbor. It’s unfortunate that the two great commandments have largely been reduced to a dog whistle in church. I’m reminded of the platinum rule. The golden rule, do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. The platinum rule, do unto others as they want done unto themselves.
I have had a few interesting conversations when I pose the question as to whether it is possible to invert the order of the statements, to love others in order to get to know God better… I had always wondered why people were startled by the concept as a possibility. I was taking the words at face value and not assigning additional meanings to that.
AmyJ wrote:
I have had a few interesting conversations when I pose the question as to whether it is possible to invert the order of the statements, to love others in order to get to know God better…I had always wondered why people were startled by the concept as a possibility. I was taking the words at face value and not assigning additional meanings to that.
That’s a great thought, Amy. I believe the reason we “feel good” when truly serving/helping others is actually the Holy Spirit “connecting” with us. I do indeed agree with you – loving one another is probably the best way to love God and come closer to God.
FWIW, Jesus gave the Pharisees the “Sunday school answer” when posed that question. He was repeating what all Jews then and now hold as their deepest core belief. While they are ranked in both the OT and the NT, in some respects I wonder why – surely God must understand that which we do, and which King Benjamin also seems to have figured out.
DarkJedi wrote:
That’s a great thought, Amy. I believe the reason we “feel good” when truly serving/helping others is actually the Holy Spirit “connecting” with us. I do indeed agree with you – loving one another is probably the best way to love God and come closer to God.
I gave the most thought to this concept when I was in a more atheist frame of mind:)
I figured that if I was more compassionate and helping others (balanced against helping myself and setting boundaries), then if there was a compassionate God, they would see that OR if there wasn’t a God, I would still be able to die peacefully because I had lived within my personal value of serving humanity in my own way.
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