Monday, May 12, 2008

The Second Branch: Charity to Man

A soul thus possessed with divine love must be enlarged towards all mankind in a sincere and unbounded affection because of the relation they have to God, being His creatures, and having something of His image stamped upon them. And this is that "charity" I named as the second branch of religion, and under which all the parts of justice, all the duties we owe to our neighbor, are eminently comprehended; for he who truly loves all the world will be so far from wronging or injuring any person that he will resent any evil that befalls others as if it happened to himself.

Love for neighbor flows out of love for God. As we learn to recognize each other as bearers of God's image, we love that which inheres in each other. Here loving the world is not meant in the same capacity as found in John's epistles--there the apostle commands us not to love the world, but he means the world system and its values that are opposed to God--but loving all the people who make up the nations, tongues, and tribes. And if we truly love our neighbor as ourselves we will even come to see such an identification that we share in their sufferings.

No comments: