The Ethics and Pro-Social Values in Judaism, Christianity and Islam ...

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your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark
12:31) 10
According to this Great Commandment, every other law and commandment, then, is
secondary to the law of love, or is fulfilled in the act of love (Luke 10:25-37). Paul views
the love of neighbor as fulfillment of the law, as well as individual commandments of the
Torah (Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13-15). Paul makes this point particularly clear:
“Owe no one anything except to love one another; for the one who loves another
has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You
shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other
commandment are summed up in this command, ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the
law” (Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14).
When pressed about who the neighbor was, Luke records Jesus as answering in the form
of a parable: when a man was robbed, beaten, stripped and left to die, two religious
people passed the victim by without help. Then an “impure outsider” –a Samaritan, came
to the victim’s aid, tending to his wounds and bringing him to safety. Jesus thereby
makes the argument that a neighbor is anyone, regardless of status or piety, who is in
need. This was a self-conscious effort to broaden the sense of community beyond
traditional boundaries to a universal standard.
Elaborating on Biblical ethics, Jesus famously proclaims that “In everything, do to others
as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
Like Judaism, Jesus asks believers to love all others as God loves creation: God sends
sunshine and rain on the good as well as the bad (Matthew 5: 43-48) As God does not
distinguish among his creation, nor should his believers.
Love
Love is one of the most central themes of the New Testament. The depths to which God
loves humankind is attested to in what is probably the most oft-quoted verse in the New
Testament: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that
everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
God’s love for humankind is likened to a father’s love, demonstrated most famously in
the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), where the father waits patiently for the
wayward son to return home. When he does, he is embraced and accepted completely in
an expression of God’s unconditional welcoming of the repentant sinner. Love is not
merely at attribute of God, but what God fundamentally is. The New Testament states
that “the very nature of God is love, and that is why it is possible to say “God is love” (I
John 4:8, 16).
10 Matthew’s version is as follows “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
(Matthew 22: 37-40)