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المؤلف: RCW
التاريخ: 13.08.2010
Category: المصالحة
If we seek to apply the biblical axiom ’love your neighbor as yourself’ to ethnic communities, then we can phrase it ’love your ethnic neighbor as yourself’. This fundamental idea of scripture, indeed the second command next only to loving God’, assumes that we do in fact love ourselves. Loving oneself is not wrong, it is fundamental to our nature and being as humans, as God created us and intends for us. Loving oneself *too* much, of course, is when a good thing goes wrong. But loving oneself too little can also be unhealthy. We seek balance, self-awareneness and self-control in all things.
With love of self in balance, grounded in love for God, we are called upon to extend such love to others, in this case ethnic others. One of the most beautiful passages of scriptures capturing both of these angles, and even a third, is Lk 7:5 - "elders of the Jews" come to the Jewish Jesus not just casually asking, but "pleading with him" to heal the servant of a Roman centurion on grounds that "he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue." With its reference to "synagogue," this passage is rich in thought for interreligious relations both in Jesus’ day and our own global world, but to focus on the ethnic side, here we have reference to ’love of nation’, or in Greek, ’love of ethnos’, coming from three different angles: the Jews, the Roman centurion and Jesus, all together! And the center of the Jewish appeal and, thus also, Jesus willing response is precisely ’love of nation’, in this case the Jewish nation.
What thoughts does such a reflection on scripture stir in your mind and heart? What does scripture teach us, both in word and illustrative action, about ’loving our ethnic neighbor as ourselves’?
كلمات مفتاحية: ethnicity, nationalism, identity, culture, religion, interreligious, interethnic
مشاهدات: 6558
تعليقات: 7
توصيات: 0
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الولايات المتحدة
I think when people quote scripture, one should make sure not to add words..Matthew 19:19 "Honor your father and mother; also You shall love your neighbor as yourself." I don’t read any where that says we specifically point out the ethicity of our neighbor. One doesn’t most times get to choose their neighbor but as Christians we are charged to love our neighbor; no matter the color, race, creed, religion or any other demographic where one may try to decipher which neighbor to love. I say NO, we as Christians don’t get to choose what commandments we get to follow when Jesus is Lord and Savior. We make our best and honest effort to follow Jesus’ lead.
05.04.2011
الولايات المتحدة
@ JourneywithCHRISTie:
Journeywith CHRISTie you have said the truth. Love thy
neighbor as ourselves is the commandment. We can’t pick and choose which neighbor we should to love. Obedience is better than sacrifice and we are known by the love we show each other, so are we God’s people or aren’t we? Our actions prove our words but our love shows the definition.
10.04.2012
الولايات المتحدة
Do we have to separate "ethnic" neighbors from whatever "non-ethnic" neighbors may be?
We are to love and serve all peoples, regardless of ethnicity. I don’t believe inclusivity requires jargon of this age in order to make certain we do not exclude anyone.
So, do we ask the question: Do we love our gay, transvestite or bi-sexual neighbors?
13.08.2010
الولايات المتحدة
@ Joseph_Paul_Cadariu:
Thank you for your reply. Yes, of course, we must ask the question as it applies to each and every potential relationship we are or might be in. I was asked by Lausanne to facilitate discussion about ethnicity issues, that is why my postings address them. And while I again affirm the need for thinking from interdisciplinary angles, I prefer to stay ’on topic’.
As far as justification for discussing ’ethnicity’ issues distinctly, yet alone any issues, the fundamental "I-thou" distinction remains objective and in tact, the very basis of the ability of "You" and "I" to even engage in this discussion. The same goes for the idea of "neighbor." It represents a fundemantal distinction between two differing entities. The post-modernist attempts to blur or even eliminate any and all distinctions between ’others’ in the name of ’equality’ and/or ’unity’ and/or anything else are misguided as far as I myself am concerned. But here again we are in danger of allowing the discussion at hand to be ’derailed’ in seeking to direct attention away from it to ’other’ matters. My request as facilitator of this discussion is that we not allow that to happen, but that we keep our responses and reflections focused upon the very valid and vital matter of ’ethnicity’, and in this case, fostering the love of God and ’others’ between various ethnic communities of our world. All of us look forward to further contributions along those lines.
16.08.2010
الهند
@ Joseph_Paul_Cadariu:
I think we should greatly love our gay, transvestite and bisexual neighbors and love them so much so as to not leave them where they are!
19.08.2010
الهند
In fact KJames 2:8calls this the Royal Law and as J.Smart says "There can be no genuine relationship with God without a genuine relationship with our neighbor."
19.08.2010
الولايات المتحدة
The English “neighbor” stands here for the Greek word “pleision” which originally meant “the other one”, “the one next to you” or “the one not like yourself”. The command therefore in the ethnic context should be to love those who are ethnically different without necessarily first making them just like yourself.
18.08.2010
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