False teaching

I am jot in the least proud to have to admit that I have spent years believing and teaching something false. I was thinking about something quite unrelated to the bible as I was driving home last night when the realisation suddenly hit me that something I have always said Jesus taught was, in fact, not what the bible shows at all.

I said and written on many occasions that Jesus gave us three commands concerning love: love the Lord your God…love your neighbour…love each other. The last of these is from Chapter 15 of John’s account of Jesus and could not be clearer: ‘My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.’ He repeats this in the same chapter: ‘This is my command: Love each other.’ No one in their right mind could argue that Jesus did not command us to love each other. The bible tells us that Jesus said these things directly to his followers. These are direct commands. But what about the other two, the commands to love God and love our neighbours?

You may rightly infer that I am going to suggest that the bible does not tell us that Jesus directly gave his followers these two commands. Let me be clear, therefore, that I firmly believe that Jesus wants us to love God and love our neighbours. Where I have gone wrong in the past is not in teaching that he wants us to do so, but in falsely claiming that he worded this desire as two direct commands.

Matthew 22 tells us that:

‘One of them (the Pharisees), an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
 

Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”’(1)

Did Jesus say the words “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, etc.”? Yes, of course he did. Did he say these words as a command? No! He was giving an answer to a Pharisee who was out to test his credentials and was certainly not one of his followers. His response that this was the greatest commandment from the Old Testament law demonstrates how important he thought it, but he did not give it as a command of his own. The second was likewise given as an answer, not as a command.

Jesus said, ‘All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’ because he was speaking to those who remained under the Law. He was saying to the Pharisees, who constantly tried to trip him up with petty rules and misused quotations, that the Old Testament commandments were intended to encourage love, not to enslave people to rules and regulations. The message is, in fact, equally valid for those of us living under the freedom of the Spirit, but that is not the same as saying that Jesus stated these two commands. He did not.

I will no longer tell people that Jesus commanded us to love our god, Yahweh, with every fibre of our being and to love our fellow humans as ourselves. Instead, I will tell the truth, that Jesus wants us to do these things and described them as being exceptionally important. But we, who are under the freedom of the Spirit, love Yahweh through the person of Jesus, and love our neighbours not by following rules, but by sharing the love of Jesus. His only command was that we love each other (2), which he knew was not going to be easy when we have so many ways of disagreeing over so many things.

 

(1)   In reality, neither of these was accurately an Old Testament ‘commandment of the Law’. The first adds to the commandment; the second is a summary of several other commandments. This, of course, does not alter the importance of what we read, but we should be aware that Jesus was not a great one for quoting word for word. He placed more emphasis on the message than the letter.

(2)   I have believed and taught until now that he also commanded us to ‘Go and make disciples of all nations...’ He did not. It is true that he told us to do this and more, but he did not command this. Had he wanted to give a command he would surely have chosen to use the word ‘command’. This does not diminish the need for us to do all he asks of us, but we should not claim that scripture says something that it does not. Words are powerful and should be used carefully.

A new Archbishop of Canterbury - an old problem

So! A new Archbishop of Canterbury! Yippee!

Or, alternatively, so what? Will it change anything that actually matters? Will the Church of England and the Anglican Communion stop focusing on issues such as women bishops, gay marriage and economics? I doubt it.

The new man – and yes, of course it is a man – is no doubt a splendid fellow. He must be exceptionally talented to have risen through the hierarchy so fast. We might ask, however, what sort of talents we are talking about. I am not questioning his spirituality or beliefs – I have no evidence on which to do so and no right either – but it is surely not spiritual qualities that lead to the appointment of an Archbishop of Canterbury. His background before ‘going into the church’ was corporate business and it would seem that the qualities he demonstrated as a successful executive have brought him his new position. He is, after all, called to lead an organisation that is essentially a huge business with political and social influences far beyond its ostensible membership.

Will the new man refuse to wear those ridiculous mediaeval robes or end all the obsequious bowing and scraping? Will he advise those around him to focus on Jesus and him alone? Will he wash clean the gold-weighted hands, too heavy to lift in proper prayer? Will he rid the Church of England of its vast property portfolio, including all those cold, empty buildings that are nothing more than historic monuments to man’s folly and pride? Will he renounce his right to pass judgement on political, social and economic affairs, Caesar’s due. Will he stop discussions about Anglican policies and dogma and focus solely on his responsibility to proclaim Jesus?

I hope he will. I pray that he will.

We will know the true state of the new archbishop’s spirituality when we see the course he takes – a world-centred course or a Jesus-centred one.