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<\/source><\/picture>Have you noticed that there is a growing trend to take Jesus\u2019 admonition to love our neighbor as ourselves and morph it into a leftwing policy platform?<\/p>\n
Consider the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
- One prominent evangelical group in 2022\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0a report called \u201cLoving the Least of These: Addressing a Changing Environment,\u201d\u00a0in which \u201clove our neighbors\u201d is cited as a central reason to support the Left\u2019s\u00a0thoroughly<\/a>\u00a0corrupt climate change\u00a0agenda<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- So-called faith leaders have told Americans that absorbing hordes of unvetted illegal aliens into their districts is an act of \u201ccompassion\u201d and \u201cmercy.\u201d As one op-ed\u00a0put it<\/a>\u00a0recently, \u201cWill we choose to embrace them [illegals], like the good Samaritan, or to turn them away?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Various Christian poohbahs\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0believers to comply with COVID-19 mandates despite the\u00a0potential<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0severe<\/a>\u00a0side effects,\u00a0declaring<\/a>\u00a0in all caps, \u201cLOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, GET THE SHOT!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There are plenty of other examples, but you get the point.<\/p>\n
The famous passage in Mark 12:31 is being used as a placeholder to baptize liberal follies with Gospel-sounding language.<\/p>\n
Not only is this tactic lazy, but proponents of it are hoping conservatives don\u2019t ask any follow-up questions.<\/p>\n
Questions like \u2026<\/p>\n
- \n
- Wouldn\u2019t it be more loving to ensure that our\u00a0low-income neighbors\u00a0have access to cheap and abundant fossil fuels rather than forcing them into\u00a0expensive<\/a>\u00a0electric vehicles against their will or subjecting them to\u00a0ever-increasing<\/a>\u00a0gasoline prices and \u201crolling blackouts<\/a>\u201d by\u00a0shutting off<\/a>\u00a0natural\u00a0energy sources? Isn\u2019t\u00a0rejecting<\/a>\u00a0the god of global warming a loving action, certainly to the working poor?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- The same goes for defending the bodily autonomy of\u00a0our neighbor, where he isn\u2019t required to choose between gainful employment and punitive vaccine orders from government officials \u2014 that\u2019s love, too, no?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And yet, the outward show of \u201clove\u201d regarding these politically charged topics generally falls on the left side of the debate, as if Christians are limply supposed to accept progressive overreach because a Bible verse was quoted out of context.<\/p>\n
In fact, in the ongoing attempts to \u201cChristianize\u201d leftist causes, we are now at the stage where\u00a0love your neighbor\u00a0is being used to support conduct that is explicitly repudiated by God\u2019s Word, like theft and murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But before we get to those details, the first step we need to take is to define\u00a0love\u00a0from God\u2019s perspective. This mindset keeps us grounded\u00a0biblically\u00a0so we don\u2019t end up like children who are\u00a0tossed to and fro by\u00a0every wind of doctrine\u00a0(Ephesians 4:14).<\/p>\n
For that definition let\u2019s examine how the Apostle Paul tackles the subject, which we find in Romans 13:8-10:<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cOwe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, \u2018You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,\u2019 and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
To love our neighbor, then, is to not steal from him, to not lie about him, to not kill him, to not defraud him, and so on and so forth. Our vertical relationship with God \u2014 represented by the first four of the Ten Commandments \u2014 guides our horizontal relationship toward others, which is embodied by the last six of the Ten Commandments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Put differently, the foundation of\u00a0biblical love\u00a0is God\u2019s holy and righteous law. That\u2019s where the conversation ought to begin any time a politician or a pundit invokes\u00a0love thy neighbor\u00a0as grounds to adopt a specific proposal.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that doesn\u2019t happen today, even within Christian circles.<\/p>\n
Remember Oliver Anthony\u2019s smash single \u201cRich Men North of Richmond\u201d?<\/p>\n
The music artist vented frustration with D.C. elites, with onerous taxes, and with the \u201cobese milkin\u2019 welfare\u201d off those taxes.<\/p>\n
Listeners seemed to agree.<\/p>\n
The song landed at the\u00a0top<\/a>\u00a0of the Billboard charts.<\/p>\n
One writer at Christianity Today was not amused by Anthony\u2019s lyrics, however.<\/p>\n
She\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0him of \u201ctrafficking in easy caricatures and political tropes\u201d and opined that he didn\u2019t \u201chonor\u201d the \u201cGod-given humanity\u201d of people on welfare.<\/p>\n
The title of the article said it all: \u201cOliver Anthony\u2019s Viral Hit Doesn\u2019t Love Its Neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the record, food stamp fraud alone could be as high as $4.7 billion a year,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to one\u00a0watchdog group<\/a>. This means Anthony\u2019s instincts appear to be correct: Some people really are\u00a0milkin\u2019\u00a0government programs.<\/p>\n
Forget that fact for a moment, though.<\/p>\n
Here we have a supposedly renowned evangelical publication openly defending the welfare state as an extension of neighborly love.<\/p>\n
This is the same welfare state that is literally built on theft and envy \u2014 the very opposite of what the Bible esteems as love.<\/p>\n
Is it acceptable to plunder the goods of one person in order to aid another person who may be struggling financially?<\/p>\n
Of course not.<\/p>\n
Stealing is stealing.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t a social justice exception to the Eighth Commandment, whether those actions are taken by individuals or by magistrates.<\/p>\n
We pay taxes to civil authorities to keep the peace and maintain order, not to redistribute wealth and stir up resentment between income brackets.<\/p>\n
When\u00a0love\u00a0is divorced from its scriptural underpinning, the immoral entity that is the welfare state becomes catechized as an article of faith, even though its very existence flouts God\u2019s yardstick for what constitutes a loving deed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s worse, this textual abuse has been applied to abortion \u2014 not in banning the gruesome practice but in encouraging it!<\/p>\n
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom paid for billboards in pro-life states that advertised California as a destination to receive unrestricted abortion \u201ccare\u201d for out-of-area residents who were impacted by new laws banning or limiting the procedure.<\/p>\n
That a radical abortionist like Newsom would pull a stunt like this wasn\u2019t news, but how he organized the stunt did make news.<\/p>\n
His ad\u00a0read<\/a>: \u201cNeed An Abortion? California Is Ready To Help,\u201d and it signed off with a website to visit and by quoting Mark 12:31: \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously Newsom\u2019s message was intended to be gratuitously provocative.<\/p>\n
Still, these distortions will happen more frequently if the Bible continues to be deconstructed through ideological dogmas that aren\u2019t built upon truth.<\/p>\n
As Christians, the best way to combat the misuse of Jesus\u2019s words is to affirm a simple reality: The nature of love cannot be captured apart from God\u2019s expression of it, which has been revealed in Scripture.<\/p>\n
Slimy politicians from the West Coast and cultural appeasers within the Church won\u2019t like that answer because it serves as a restraint on their progressive ambitions.<\/p>\n
Oh well.<\/p>\n
Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\nJason Mattera is a New York Times bestselling\u00a0author<\/a>\u00a0and Emmy-nominated journalist. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>, or\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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- The same goes for defending the bodily autonomy of\u00a0our neighbor, where he isn\u2019t required to choose between gainful employment and punitive vaccine orders from government officials \u2014 that\u2019s love, too, no?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Wouldn\u2019t it be more loving to ensure that our\u00a0low-income neighbors\u00a0have access to cheap and abundant fossil fuels rather than forcing them into\u00a0expensive<\/a>\u00a0electric vehicles against their will or subjecting them to\u00a0ever-increasing<\/a>\u00a0gasoline prices and \u201crolling blackouts<\/a>\u201d by\u00a0shutting off<\/a>\u00a0natural\u00a0energy sources? Isn\u2019t\u00a0rejecting<\/a>\u00a0the god of global warming a loving action, certainly to the working poor?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Various Christian poohbahs\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0believers to comply with COVID-19 mandates despite the\u00a0potential<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0severe<\/a>\u00a0side effects,\u00a0declaring<\/a>\u00a0in all caps, \u201cLOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, GET THE SHOT!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- So-called faith leaders have told Americans that absorbing hordes of unvetted illegal aliens into their districts is an act of \u201ccompassion\u201d and \u201cmercy.\u201d As one op-ed\u00a0put it<\/a>\u00a0recently, \u201cWill we choose to embrace them [illegals], like the good Samaritan, or to turn them away?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n