What did Jesus think were the important things that people ought to do?
Well,
The only other thing he ever said he regarded as summarizing “the Law and the Prophets” (i.e., the whole teaching of Judaism) was this:
He taught the two summary commandments in a different circumstance in Luke, and explained more on what “neighbor” meant:
You have to remember, in hearing this passage, that to the Jews Jesus was teaching, the Samaritans were both heretics and half-caste outcasts. He was picking a person from the group they despised.
If He were telling the story today, He’d portray the guy as a gay Arab, for maximum shock value – Mubarak Dahir, perhaps?
His last night with the Twelve, He told them:
How to implement all this?
And how about this for an expansion on judgment:
Now, the interesting thing about all this is, save for the idea of primary and total commitment to God, the whole thing sounds strangely like humanistic concepts of how to behave properly towards one another, without reference to God.
But it’s cadged from Scripture as the points that Jesus seemed to think where the most essential ones on human behavior, along with some expansion on how to implement them in practical terms.
So if it’s Witness Time around here, that’s mine: Not a bunch of theology, but simple statement of what Jesus said to do – what He Himself thought was the most important stuff.
And one final comment: By my experience, when you try to live it out, you find your life richer and fuller, more meaningful, more full of love and joy. That’s a fringe benefit, but one I think people might like a lot.
(Yeah, I’m perfectly well aware that those are the words of three writers a few decades after He lived, put back into His mouth, and that there’s no evidence that will convince everybody that He was who He’s claimed to be by the churches, or even that He definitely existed. But isn’t it strange that they came to agreement on what was expected of people, and that doing what they said He expected is something people generally feel is a pretty good idea anyway?
John Barnes has an interesting character, a neo-Mayan who gets called to be a no-kidding prophet. And he delivers a very strange line, which I paraphrase (because I can’t quote it verbatim from memory): “It doesn’t matter whether you pay any attention to the prophet. The important thing is to live out the message.”
Think about it. Even if you cannot believe seven impossible things before breakfast, what problems do you have with what they claim Jesus said was most important to do?
I wish I could remember where I read it, but there was a passage I once read that basically noted that a couple of years after the Ascension, Jesus’s followers realized that it was a lot easier to worship Him than to try to live like Him. (It should probably also be noted that Paul had an awful lot to do with that…)
Polycarp, yours is a gentle, generous and joyful faith, one that prompts me to try to repair my own. I hope to lay aside the larger questions of what Christianity means and focus on the simpler “What shall I do now?” Perhaps the larger answers come as the aggregate of a lot of smaller ones.
I have been guilty of looking at religion as a sort of self-improvement course, and I am sure that’s not merely wrong, but entirely backwards. I’ll try directing my attention to the world outside, see if there’s anything useful to be done there, and let my soul polish itself for a while. I tend toward selfishness, though, so it’s useful to have the occasional reminder. Thanks for providing one.
People will always differ over certain aspects of the Christian message. Indeed, the single greatest challenge for most Christians is accepting - loving - one another. Jesus understood this, I believe.
Someone put it well about the core message(s) of the Bible:
“It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that worry me. It’s the parts I do understand. They worry me.”
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not worship any gods before me, and honor thy father and mother.
Wait…
Four. FOUR requirements. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not worship any gods before me, honor thy father and mother, and thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s ass.
He recommended marriage instead: “It is better to marry than to burn.”
Lola, thanks for the set of quotes. I’m not opposed to Paul; I simply want something called Christianity to pay attention to Jesus Christ, rather than focusing exclusively on Paul and what his theories about Christ were (especially since he didn’t meet Him until after His death).
Thanks for the shout-out, Poly. If you surf around a bit on the site you find this page, which may be more relevant to this thread (and doesn’t centre around slurring Paul, which, while fun, isn’t as productive as actual theological debate).
But where does Paul get off with his hijacking of Christianity? It wasn’t Jesus who dumped on women, gays, and guys with long hair but the merely human Paul and we’re supposed to take him at his word that all that he said was theologically correct? Rather too much like papal infallibility for my tastes. Harumph!
I can’t speak to Christianity, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t the case there too.
There is nothing wrong with using religion as a self-improvement course. Indeed, I can’t imagine why one would not have a religion if not to try to improve oneself.
Of course, one can’t be solely involved with introspection and self-improvement either. One must also be involved with the world and making it a better place. It is finidng that balance between the two that one must strive for.
There is a Mishna in Avos that sums up this point fairly nicely in a statement by Hillel (IMHO).
In addition, in Judaic thought, there is the concept that one should perform the commandments, even if for an ulterior motive. The idea is that if you do good deeds for an ulterior motive, you will eventually come to do them for their own sake.
So, by all means, look to (whichever) religion for self-improvement. There is nothing wrong with that. Just make sure to try to make the world a better place at the same time.
I don’t think we need to throw out any of them – just stop regarding them as if they were carried down from Mount Sinai on stone tablets, instead of being the advice of a former Pharisee with personal hangups who found peace and freedom in Christ, to some of the people he’d brought to know Jesus – and containing as much of his personal opinion as of anything direct fom God.
There’s some great stuff in Romans, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians… and there are some “this is what I recommend for you, in the situation you’re in” stuff that doesn’t need to get turned into Rules for Everybody Everywhere, because they’re Written in the Bible.
My God doesn’t have a leather cover and India-paper insides. And He doesn’t talk in red ink.
Well, hang on a minute. One of the functions of spirituality and religious belief is to improve yourself, and it isn’t backwards. There is a hidden implication in the Great Commandment that many miss. To wit:
*You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
I give you a new commandment: that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.*
Before you are able to understand and show this love to anyone else, you first have to love yourself. You have to see yourself as acceptable and loved in the eyes of God despite your flaws, faults, sins or shortcomings. Once this divine love is accepted with humility, you are then able to extend it to others who are sinful and flawed like you. Accepting God’s love doesn’t make you better than anyone else, but it gives you the ability to lift others up to your level and see them as just like yourself.
So, following the spirit of the OP, you live your life in quiet acceptance of divine love despite your sins, and you offer that same acceptance to your neighbor as a natural reflection of the love you experience.
