The Second Greatest Commandment [closed]

Question

Love your neighbor as yourself. - Matt 22:36-40

I would like to take appart this commandment in order to better understand it. These five words require an extensive analysis especially since there are so many hidden factors - like cultural, etymological, and translational differences.

Paul describes Love - the perfect love of God, which we all have in ourselves as the basis of everything - in 1. Cor 13:4-8 by listing its attributes and negations.

Attributes: patient, kind, delights in truth, trusting, hoping, always enduring

Negations: not envious, not boasting, not bragging, not strutting about, 
  not arrogant, not rude, not crude, not indecent, not self-absorbed, 
  not easily upset, not tallying wrongs, not celebrating injustice

The word for Neighbor - plésion - generally refers to someone who is near, in which I find the German translation "Deinen Nächsten" meaning "Your next one" more revealing, whereas the Hungarian goes even further with the translation "Your semi-friend".

The term as yourself states an equation, which I interpret as a subcommandment (or pre-commandment if you will) to learn to love yourself, which becomes the basis of external love.

Jesus states in John 15:12 to love one another as He loved us. On the other hand Paul tells Timothy explicitly to turn away from perilous men. In order to do so, I have to examine a person and his attributes in them from which I deduce his character whether he is good or perilous and if I find that person to be such as in 2. Timothy 3:1-9 then I must turn away from him, whereas Jesus also said to love your enemies. Clearly here we have an a-priori paradox because of the excluding nature of these commandments. If I turn away from perilous people then I have to withdraw my love for them to a certain degree. As an example, if I am trusting someone who is treacherous then I'm clearly a fool.

In order to solve this paradox I will assume the following:

1. Jesus' commandments are stronger than Paul's
2. By others Jesus meant the other truthful and righteous
3. Enemies are those people listed in 2. Timothy 3:1-9
4. Assumptions 2. and 3. are excluding

Jesus clearly states how to love your next and the others but he leaves room in the classification of the kind of love He wants you to show toward your enemies. A few directives He does list, such as His commandment to turn the other cheek or to give more than demanded (Matthew 5:36-42). These state that we have to be patient, kind and enduring towards our enemies. But I would argue that trusting in your enemy is foolish. Nevertheless you can and should still keep the hope that they will turn away from their sinful nature (though this hope is directed more towards God than the person itself). But if one cannot trust another, then he clearly is unable to love that person as much as someone you can trust. And if you cannot trust someone you will be less patient and kind with that person. But the commandment is that you still have to be patient and kind. So there is a degree in how much you express your love towards anyone. A child loves his mother more than he loves his - in most cases sadistic - teacher (yes, I have some personal experience in that). Thus the child will naturally express more kindness to the mother. I would even argue that respect is a certain type of kindness. Thus the child can be kind to both, but not by the same expression.

I would be glad about your feedback regarding the above.

Answer 1

To understand Matthew 22:36-40, you need to understand that Jesus is quoting Leviticus 19:18, which states (in full):

"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD."

The conjunction between Leviticus 19:18a and 19:18b shows that Leviticus intends 'neighbour' to mean the Israelite people, a meaning confirmed elsewhere in the OT. Jesus adds no new meaning to this, because he simply calls it the second greatest commandment. Bear in mind that the original citation of Jesus is found in Mark 12:31, so this emphasis on the Israelites is not a Matthean bias.

John's Gospel (John 13:34-35) alters this to say, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

Here, the author of John creates an entirely new commandment for Christians to show the whole world that they are Christians by their actions towards each other.

Paul is unlikely to have known of he words attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels, so there is no paradox there. In any case, Leviticus does not require one to love everyone. Similarly, Paul would not have known Luke 6:27,35: an injunction to love your enemies, and if he had, then he would also have known Luke 20:43, "Till I make thine enemies thy footstool."

The new commandment in John 13:34-35 should be evaluated separately from the second greatest commandment (in Matt 22:36-40, etc), whether or not we believe that in John 13:34-35 was really said by Jesus.