The Neshoba Democrat., 1910-03-17
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Jesus Idea
of Religion
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-- HOU shalt love the Lord
.EKA thy God with all thy heart,
y and with all thy soul. and
NAE with all thy mind, and
~6S8Ts r. with all they strength"
Thou shalt love thy neigh
Dor as thyself."-Luke 1927: Mat
thew 22:37-40; Mark 1890, 81.
These words are twice found in the
story Of the life of Jesus. In both
cases they occur in conversation with
Jewish lawyers. One of this class
cross-questioned Jesus. and asked him:
what shall / do to inherit eternal
life?" Evidently he was not in earnest.
Jesus threw him back upon his know!-
edge of his chosen realm What is
written in the law? how readest
thou?' In answering, this expert
avoided all mention of externals.
From a corner of the law book he
quoted two words about loving God
and men which had been overlooked,
in practice at least. by his own class.
Jesus replied: Thou hast answered
right; this do, and thou shalt live"
In other words, eternal life is eternal
love, and man inherits it by living
1t here and now. On the last Tuesday
of his earthly life. another lawyer
tried to entrap Jesus by seeking to
involve him in current theological
dispute about (which is the greatest
commandment" Jesus declined to
no 6ro into iJ1n dnhotne
the relative importance of dogmas
He refused to be entangled in theo-
logical bubbles.
True Religion Defined.
Religion does not consist in debates
over metaphysical dogmas, nor in bat
ties of logic where catapults hurl flaw
less inferences, and cannon discharge
chain shot of perfect syllogisms. nor
in tight ecclesiastical fences to guard
divine legislation, nor in pious con-
ventionalities. True religion is true
love for God and men. These words
of the text have the highest authority.
They are venerable and majestic with
the age and glory of the Old Testa-
ment law; they come as the express
sion of the deepest convictions of the
human heart voiced even by the legal,
ism of Jesus day; and they record
our Lords summary of all that was
best in the historical revelation of
human duty as contained in the Bible
of his day, and his assertion that no
ideal for life could be higher. He
thus freed religion from bondage to
legalism and stated the truth that it
belonged tc the realm of vitalities
Here as everywhere else in his teach
ing he insisted that religion is not a
matter of law, but of life, not a con
forming to statutes but an outgoing
of love. not ritual but righteousness
The Chara cteristics of Love.
And what is this love? No intelli
gent person will for a moment think
that it is mere sentiment. 1t is not
luxurious emotion that vents itself in
pious phrases, or sanctified interjec
tions, or lachrymose rhapsodies, and
eXhausts itself in these outputs. Nor
Is it the merely mystical passion that
ecstatics have coveted, and that has
tried, often irreverently we fear, to
adapt to the deity the endearing terms
appropriate to the holy intimacies of
human life. 1t is not a matter OF
neurology, but of ethics. 1t is not
vague rapturous feeling far too often
sought for mistakenly by many who
are really anxious to make actual in
their lives the ideal that Jesus pre-.
sented. Love is a strong, vital, ra.
tional, imperial conservation of ones
self. 1t is useful and practical 1t is
the love described by Paul in his
noble hymn in the thirteenth chapter
of First Corinthians. 1t is duty
charged and discharged with delight.
1t is service which is rendered with
Joy in the whole being.
There is no fool like the fool who