Kingdom Ethics
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you,” John 13:34
Love – Why does Yeshua say this is a new commandment? Doesn’t the Torah teach us to love one another? Isn’t that the point of loving your neighbor? What makes this particular statement so unique?
Christians have often cited this verse as the basis for an ethical principle. They have claimed that the New Testament is no longer based on Jewish legislated morality but on an eternal principle of moral action. That principle is love for each other. But this presents a problem. Childs makes the observation, “The biblical narratives are not a collection of teachings on virtue, character, and morality. In fact, the Bible amazes us by its remarkable indifference to our conceptions of good and evil. Rather its chief concern is not the doing of man, but of God. ‘It is not the right human thought about God which forms the content of the Bible, but the right divine thoughts about man’ (Barth, 43).” In other words, the Bible is not man’s attempt to develop an appreciation of the divine or a code of ethics based on the divine. The Bible is God’s thoughts about us! Attempts to derive ethical principles from the Bible miss the point. The Bible is not about ethical principles. It’s about God’s view of the human condition.
How does this insight help us? First, it corrects all attempts to come up with some kind of universal moral directive – like “love each other.” It’s popular to say that the hallmark of Christian living is love, but this is a mistake. Why? It’s a mistake because it strips away the context of life in the Spirit. It holds up an independent principle not anchored in God’s personal interaction with us. Principles of ethics are Greek-based concepts derived from human reason about what is good, but the Hebrew Scriptures are not about principles. They are about a living, dynamic, personal relationship – a relationship that has ebbs and flows, that weaves its way into all sorts of human activities and that isn’t always so neat and organized. The Scriptures are stories and thoughts about concrete, real-life events woven into the fabric of God’s interactions with us. The Bible, as Childs says, is remarkable in its indifference to our categories of right and wrong, good and evil. For example, why create the Tree? The Bible is about God’s point of view, not ours – and it does not accommodate our trivial questions.
Secondly, by recognizing that “love” is not a principle, but an event-relationship, we see that Yeshua’s new commandment is the extension of God’s point of view. “As I have loved you,” qualifies what was already there. I already knew that God loves. He loves me and He loves my neighbor. I already had Leviticus 19:18. But now I discover that God’s love embraces self-sacrifice on behalf of others. It is more than benevolence. It is costly benevolence, in character with the Son who died for me. When I find myself in relationship with Him, I realize that my life becomes an expression of His life. And so does my death. There are no limits on what God would do to rescue me. There can be no limits on what I will do to rescue you. It’s not quite as simple as WWJD, is it?
Topical Index: love, agape, ethics, principles, relationship, John 13:34, Leviticus 19:18
<>
For G-d so loved.. “behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us”. Brother Skip, I confess, fully and freely there is no way I can ever hope to comprehend the depths just in these two portions of the Word of G-d. It is so beyond my finite brain to know this kind of love. But this simple man doesn’t have to know all about cherry pie to enjoy it! To say G-d’s grace is ‘sufficient’ is to say the ocean is ‘sufficient’ for a minnow to swim in. You can wade in up to your toes, walk out a little further to your knees, further still, and further still. There is no (measurable) depth, no width, no length, no height,no end to this love. It has been said, “tears are the safety valve of the heart.” When we discover (in even a small degree) how much G-d loves us and the sacrifice He gave (and gives), this ‘heart-valve’ becomes engaged and the tears do fall in no small quantity. “The Sacred Romance” – a book written by Gene Edwards is one more attempt to show our Bible is G-d’s love letter to His children. May we all be actively aware of His life-giving love toward us today. Grace and peace be unto you.
Thank you, Carl….wish I could hang out with you as I so love your repsonses to Skip’s teachings…your word here is too from my own heart. Blessings in Christ Jesus, Kelly
Love is not so simple, as I had thought. It is not about what I do after all. Golly, now I have got to start thinking again.
I love the train of thought Skip and it resonates greatly. Describing love as “event-relationship” driven is far too difficult to debate …. this speaks volumes.
At the end of the day “loving my neighbor” means to treat them in accordance to the righteousness depicted in Torah. It does not mean … feel an emotional bond with them … especially in light of Yeshua’s application wherein we are to even treat our enemies with love!
So “love” is to take place even where there is no “like” and in this you are spot on …. this means self sacrifice … this means upholding the righteousness of Torah even to the detriment of my own welfare.
This thought process is very practical, very behavioral and very Hebraic … nice message!
You know moving the paradigm from principal to event also could be applied to “grace” could it not? People love to think in terms of grace as an abstracted principal … and in so doing remove any responsibility from the event …. that event being life transformation … being made kadosh.
Interesting …..
“At the end of the day “loving my neighbor” means to treat them in accordance to the righteousness depicted in Torah.”
Hi Drew,
Basically, I’m with you for the most part, but doesn’t the interpretation implied in your statement above turn God’s love into a Jewish law?
Shalom Michael,
For starters – the Torah … though gifted to Israel is not a Jewish law or standard … it is of ELOHIM … with Israel being the trustees of Torah. Far too often people think in terms of Torah as strictly being Jewish … while we know it is designed for all humanity! 🙂 … This is another discussion however!
Back to the point:
The righteousness of Torah is a representation of some of ELOHIM’s character. The representation of His character that He wants us to know, to understand, to emulate and apply in our lives, as He has commanded! The purpose being that all people would know that He is ELOHIM and He loves them and He wants them to be treated righteously!
If one views Torah in strictly a legalistic sense however then it might be viewed in the context of a mere moral doctrine premised upon fairness, equality … or perhaps an “even Steven” construct so to speak. Before Yeshua revealed more to us I don’t believe it unfair to characterize the traditional application of Torah in this “even Steven” or “eye for an eye” convention. Certainly from a Jewish societal perspective this seems accurate.
Anyway … it would seem that Yeshua was commanding an even greater responsibility and application of Torah to His disciples. And in so doing He revealed a much deeper glimpse into the character of ELOHIM. That character component goes way beyond “even Steven” …. it is a character aspect that is divine and operates on treating people better than they deserve … to the point of self detriment. In the case of Yeshua our Lord this meant laying down His life for the undeserving.
So ultimately we can say that Torah minimally defines righteous behavior. A way for humans to treat each other as a means of expressing ELOHIM’s character and of course showing us how He loves us since He wants all persons treated fairly. But where the real heavy duty love comes in is when the “letter of what is deserved” is thrown aside and people are given better than what is prescribed. For the elect this means life instead of death! But this mercy came at a huge cost to ELOHIM … the sacrifice of the beloved Son – Yeshua!
The point that I was attempting to make was that we minimally express ELOHIM’s love to mankind when we treat people righteously and when we do so to our own detriment we express an even deeper component of ELOHIM’s character. But the key here is in “treatment” of people and in “self sacrifice”. It seems to be a matter of actions in response to events does it not! And the response … if not aligned with the righteousness of Torah … ain’t love. And a whole bunch of emotion without actions ain’t love either … is it?
As to aspects of ELOHIM’s love being contained (not condensed) in the Torah …. I personally think it is pretty clear cut that love is what Torah is all about! We just did not know the depths of this love until Yeshua revealed it to humanity!
Psalm 15:4 “He swears to his own hurt and does not change,” is THIS one of the difficult parts of love?
Hi Drew,
Great reply! You actually spoke to several points that I was thinking about but did not address in my question. And I now better understand Skip’s point about self sacrifice .
Skip was slicing things up pretty thin; so I was trying to imagine how I could explain John 13:34 to my kids when, on the one hand, we have a new “commandment” from Jesus, and on the other hand, this new commandment as you say is what the Torah is all about, love.
In any case, I appreciate your very thorough response!
Thanks,
Mike
Understanding grace as “event-language” certainly removes it from the boxed-in idea of a noun. If grace is a verb, then it is about “happening”, not “what happens.” Things are what happens, but grace is being in the flow of God. You can hardly box up a river. Actually, you can’t even dam it up for eventually that dam will not be enough to hold it back.
How about one more metaphor. Think of grace as the bolt of lightning, filled with power. Now, imagine you are a AA battery. Go try to catch that bolt in your battery. No wonder God had to hide Moses in the cleft.
Well I think I can put up with at least one more metaphor, and I like the AA battery a lot 🙂
I love it …. often times I and others will address each other with the old cliché … “what’s happening”? To think of answering “grace is happening” has never crossed my mind. And now the scary thought … if grace is happening …. how are others seeing the results of this dynamic?
Skip you are like that chef Emeril character on TV who turns things up a notch … this was a “bam”! This is more than a little nugget for me brother …. this really hit home.
Barukh HaShem