WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LOVE GOD, NEIGHBOR, AND ONESELF?
ARE THE THREE LOVES IDENTICAL?
(a brief compilation of selected past homilies)
The Summary of the Law, which we heard in
tonight’s Reading (see
below), is one of my favorite scriptural passages. “‘You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” This declaration
by Jesus is the moral absolute for all Christians, an absolute
principle rooted in the Old Testament.
By asserting “on these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets,” Jesus provides an indisputable, liberating moral context for understanding all other commandments, rules, and ethical
values. In so doing, he freed us from unswerving conformity
to lesser, inflexible,
imprisoning moral codes and regulations that too often inhibit,
or even prevent, love of God, neighbor, and self.
For over two thousand years, his disciples (including ourselves) have
been left with the daunting challenge of applying his Summary of the
Law to concrete issues in particular, often unique, circumstances. Though guided
by moral wisdom of the ages, faithful Christians at all times and in all
places have differed sharply on the application of love to living issues
- such as abortion, assisted death, war, capital punishment, divorce, human
sexuality, our stewardship of the environment, economic justice, family
structures and values, and so on. Because of our legitimate differences
on so many ethical matters, within classical Anglican Christianity we agree
to differ on various dilemmas of doctrine and morality. Nonetheless, in
spite of our often profound dissimilarities, we are generally able to judge
disapprovingly those behaviors that obviously exploit human beings together
with actions that are intentionally unjust, clearly idolatrous, blatantly
inconsiderate, consciously harmful to body and spirit, and the like.
Yet, what basically does it mean to love God, neighbor, and oneself? Are
the three loves identical? We rely on learned commentators to help us respond
to this question. What I offer tonight is drawn from these experts, not
just from my own ponderings.
Concerning love of God, the Hebrew people
were commanded to love God, and Jesus repeats this mandate in his own
Summary - an adaptation
of the
classical Old Testament wording “you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Our
love for God, understood in the context of the covenant established
at Mount Sinai, is not primarily a matter of intimate affection
and certainly not a mystical yearning for a vague transcendence. Our love
for God is
expressed by trusting Someone, namely Yahweh (a significant
name for the biblical God), by showing profound reverence for
God, and
by being loyal
to the Lord God alone. To love God is to live from moment to
moment with grace-filled hearts and minds and by making the
multitude of daily decisions
God delegates to us. To love God is to live with enthusiasm
for justice; with gratitude, awe, and penitence; and with sincere
prayer and worship.
Interestingly, worship is the supreme act
of our love for God. To worship (from "worthship")
God is to acknowledge the Creator's supreme worth; it is to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name” (Psalm
2, v. 2). In the Bible, prayer (and sacrifice) is understood as the foremost
service rendered to God as king. “...worship is the only adequate
preparation of the Church for its work and witness in the world as the
Body of Christ. ... [Worship] is an end in itself; in it man achieves his
chief end of glorifying God. There is no greater human activity than that
of giving unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Hence, for Christians
the obligation of worship is absolute... It is the act not of isolated
individuals but of the whole Church. ...private worship is based on corporate
worship, the worship of the Church, ... a family activity.” [from
Raymond Abba, Principles of Christian Worship (1957), Ch. 1]
Accordingly, Services of corporate worship are the most significant
and fundamental
expression through which human beings can love and serve God.
Without corporate worship, our love for God is significantly
diminished.
With regard to love for our neighbor, from Christ we learn that each of
us is under an obligation to promote in personal ways the interests and
significance of those with whom we come in contact, whether at home or
at work. Mutual caring, unselfishness, humility, equal regard, and generosity
of spirit, all accompanied by God's strengthening Grace, are qualities
of genuine love in all human associations. One might say that the Christian
life is the loving concern for the wellbeing of people under the inspiration
of, and allegiance to, Jesus and the ideals he personifies. Obviously,
the intensity and responsibilities of neighborly love will vary, according
to the actual relationship we have with neighbors, such as our significant
other(s), family, friends, colleagues, and other assorted bonds.
Concerning loving oneself, the hardest task
of all for many individuals hammered by underserved religious and cultural
guilt, Christian
discipleship is not about self-loathing, self-negation, asceticism,
or an avoidance
of all pleasure. Following Christ includes a trust in the God
whose Word he exemplifies and embodies - while we live to
the extent we can in accordance
with the Summary. Loving God, neighbor and self rejects self-indulgence,
self-centeredness, self-preoccupation and conforming fully
to the expectations of one’s culture. In particular circumstances, however, discipleship
might involve self-denial, suffering or even death as one remains faithful.
Nevertheless, the love of self affirms one’s self-acceptance as a
unique child of God, a positive self-regard, and equal regard
in fellowship with others.
It is safe to say that we human beings love
God, our neighbors, and our selves in different ways; the three loves
are not identical.
Moreover,
our love is imperfect and impaired to one degree or another.
At our best, strengthened by God’s spirit, and by each other, we are a “work
in progress.” We are all, as some would say, in the process of becoming
more fully human as the Creator intends us to be. By gathering here to
worship, the process is nurtured, so that our lives are more truly lived
within the Spirit of Christ’s liberating Summary of the Law.
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Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced
the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a
lawyer, asked him
a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He
said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the
greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. ”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together,
Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They
said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How
is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“ Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No
one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone
dare to ask him any more questions.
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See various related items/chapters in the
ALL HANDOUTS subsite and in “Living
Issues in Ethics” in the TEXTBOOKS subsite of philosophy-religion.org/.
Other sermons within REFLECIONS reflect this understanding
of the Summary.