Love is central to dutyThough the centrality of love to duty and virtue is not unique to Jesus and his people, exactly what it means—how it is to be elaborated in thought and institution, and how it is to be put into individual practice—is another matter altogether, and the love of which Jesus speaks contains many unique elements. They are developed and exemplified in the history of his people. For one thing, there is a distinctive emphasis by Jesus on loving your neighbor, your "near dweller," not upon loving "humanity" or "everyone." What this means is that our duty and our virtue is to love those with whom we are in effectual contact—those we can really do something about. Usually, though not always, they will be people near to us, nigh to us, in physical proximity to us. Now, this was not a completely new teaching, though its profound meaning was usually missed—a point of which Jesus made much in numerous ways. The teachers of his day knew of it and taught it, of course, in conjunction with the "Hear, O Israel" of Deuteronomy 6:4–5. When Jesus on one occasion responds to a scholar's question about the foremost commandment, he replies with two commandments, joining love of neighbor to love of God. The scholar agrees and repeats both, calling them "more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:28–33). From Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. Copyright © 2009 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
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