God requires not the doing of the commandments for their own sake, but the correction of the soul, for whose sake He established the commandments.-----------------------------------------Gender-neutral version: God requires not the doing of the commandments for their...
Jesus instructs not by means of the rule, but by means of the exception... Parables, paradoxes, hyperboles, and extreme commandments all disorient only in order to reorient us... I would say that what is reoriented by these extreme sayings is less our will than our...
Every truth, every deed, every teaching is reduced to nothing more than religious noise when it isn't placed under and clothed in the commandment to love.
When we limit our understanding of neighbor to our church, denomination, nationality, or religious persuasion, we take Jesus' name in vain. When we lift up this commandment of Jesus--to love our neighbors--we draw all people to God and one another. The chief...
Why can’t we remember that his [Jesus’] last commandment was that we should love each other as he loved us? John, in his first epistle, tells us firmly that if we cannot love each other, love the people we know and have seen, we cannot love God whom we have not seen!...
I am also free to assume that the money I have earned is now mine. I can hoard it or use it for illicit or unscrupulous purposes or lend it at exorbitant rates. But if I take that for which I have traded my life and share it with others, I am, in a tangible way,...
You chose the decaying lepers, You spoke fearlessly with unacceptable strangers, You sat with notorious sinners, and you said that streetwalkers would be the first in Paradise. You got on well with the poor, the bums, the crippled. You belittled the religious...
Although taking the risk of openness to new experiences with God can be scary, we will find the resulting growth in faith rewarding and exhilarating. The commandment against worshiping idols includes more than physical statues. We create an idol when we become set in...
When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person. The grace of his call bursts all the bonds of legalism. It is a gracious call, a gracious commandment. It transcends the difference between the law and the gospel. Christ...
The only clear line I draw these days is this: When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. …Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.