The Social Principles of JesusRauschenbusch, Walter
Religion
The Social Principles of Jesus
Rauschenbusch, Walter
Christian ethics; Christian sociology; Jesus Christ -- Teachings
_Think back to any striking experience of forgiving or being forgiven.
What was the religious and moral reaction on your life?_
Fourth Day: The Christian Intensification of Love
Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the
world’s goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up
his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? My
little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue;
but in deed and truth.—1 John 3:16-18.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every
one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Herein was the love
of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through him.—1 John 4:7-9.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No
man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God
abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.—1 John 4:11-12.
These are quotations from one of the early Christian writings. They are
evidence of the emphasis put on love as a distinctive doctrine of the new
religion. Note how the natural social instinct of human affection is
intensified and uplifted by religious motives and forces. Which of these
motives are directly taken from the personality and life of Christ?
_Do you remember any quotations from non-Christian literature in which a
similar love for love is expressed?_
Fifth Day: Solidaristic Responsibility
Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty
works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee,
Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had
been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of
judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted
unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty
works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would
have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than
for thee.—Matt. 11:20-24.
We know that by constant common action a social group develops a common
spirit and common standards of action, which then assimilate and
standardize the actions of its members. Jesus felt the solidarity of the
neighborhood groups in Galilee with whom he mingled. He treated them as
composite personalities, jointly responsible for their moral decisions.
_What groups of which we have been a part in the past have stamped us with
the group character for good or evil? How about those of which we are now
a part?_
_What have we learned from the Great War about national solidarity?_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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