John 13: 34 – 35
I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”
What does it mean to be a Christian? What are Christian values? What makes a good Christian? These can be challenging questions, but Jesus simplified them for us.
There really is only one Christian virtue. The rest of our value system flows from it. God is love. Christianity is love. Jesus took God’s nature, His very essence and built his kingdom upon it. The one Christian virtue is love.
Jesus commands one thing of us so the question we should seek to answer in everything we do, everything we say is, “What does love require?” It’s all about love. In your job, in your family, what does love require? This is the same as asking, “What would Jesus do?” Jesus was always motivated by love. He has commanded us to love one another even as he has loved us. What does that mean? It means this virtue which Jesus has called us to is unselfish, even sacrificial.
The theology of Christianity is love. Any other theology is empty. It becomes quite easy to understand and explain Christianity when you realize that love is the pinnacle. It is the pillar upon which Jesus built his ministry and his kingdom. The whole of the law, the prophets; the whole of Judeo-Christian philosophy and theory is tied up in this one commandment. Love one another as Jesus first loved us. Christianity, from God’s perspective, requires us to put the needs of others before our own. It requires us to consider what is best for others, instead of ourselves. It forces us to look through another’s eyes and to walk a mile in their shoes. It demands we not be needy and demanding but rather to be compassionate and considerate. The entirety of Christian philosophy and theology, hundreds of years of debate and thought can be boiled down to this one simple question, “What does love require?”
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