Even people who are unfamiliar with the basic tenets of Christianity might concede that love is the characteristic that should define the attitude and actions of those who profess to follow Jesus. This is because of at least two factors: the message of the Jesus of Christian confession, and the heritage of the Christian Church.
Jesus, of course, spoke about many other things but perhaps he is best remembered today for his teachings on loving others and his own life as an example of that message. The Christian axioms ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ and ‘love your enemies’ originate with Jesus himself and likewise his works of healing and exorcism demonstrated his compassion for people. He was despised by the religious leaders of his day for being someone who associated with the social outcast, the morally ambiguous, and generally just the wrong sort of crowd. His entourage was an unattractive and unruly ensemble, consisting of prostitutes, tax collectors, the physically handicapped and the mentally disturbed. When it came to helping people, he seemed to have little regard for social status or ritual purity, both of which were highly regarded in his society. His disciples believed that even his death was a sacrificial act of love; of Jesus’ own decision and salvific for all who would believe in his name.
Through the years, Christians have embraced Jesus’ charge to love others with a great deal of zealousness and solemnity. Many wonderful deeds have been performed in the name of Jesus. To see this, one only needs to observe and count the sheer number of hospitals, schools and charitable organizations founded by Christians for the glory of God all across the world. Christian figures such as William Wilberforce , Mother Teresa and countless others made a deep impact on the lives of those around them and inspired others by their example. In fact, one of the reasons the general public might expect the Church to be loving is because Christians have done so for the past two thousand years. The charge of hypocrisy, with which modern Christians are so often maligned, supposes that there is some kind of standard that is preached but not attained to. But if so many Christians are already committed to loving others, why does more ink have to be spilled over this matter?
It is because in my own experience, background and tradition we have loved others so very poorly as a consequence of misunderstanding some key Biblical texts. We have allowed our reading of these texts to misinform our theology of loving our neighbor, and in doing so have failed to truly love our neighbor. We have somehow turned loving our neighbor into a self-seeking exercise, in which our neighbors are objectified as targets of our charity on occasions when we wish to display our generosity, instead of being treated as persons made in God’s image. Worse still, we see our neighbors as a means to gaining God’s favor, as though the only reason for their existence is to make us feel better about ourselves, and the only reason we would help them is so that God might reward us for our efforts. We have this idea that people are not lovable as they are, but if we can only muster up our imagination we can pretend they are ‘Jesus’ for a few minutes and do something kind for them. We would really rather not love people; but Jesus said we ought to and so we will do our best. We love, then, ‘for Jesus’ sake’, and I think people can detect that hint of obligation and detachment. Being helped and loved are not the same things. It is possible for us to help people without ever loving them.
