GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:31
Love Your Neighbor
Shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, a desire for the solitary life developed among Christians. Anthony (ca. 250–356) of central Egypt was impressed by Jesus’ words to the rich young man, so he gave up his possessions and went to live in the desert as a hermit, praying, fasting, and practicing self-denial. Pachomius (ca. 292–348), another early Egyptian Christian, sought the ascetic life, but gathered around him a like-minded group and lived as a cenobite. In the thirteenth century, Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181-1226) gathered a few followers who practiced poverty and evangelism. Francis didn’t build monasteries; instead, his followers preached to everyone while practicing Christian asceticism and poverty, and he took Jesus’ command to love his neighbor as himself seriously.
This brief passage about neighbor-loving grows out of the conversation Jesus had with a scribe (or lawyer). St. Mark wrote, “Jesus answered, ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the second: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is not another commandment greater than these.’” (Mark 12:29-31)
Writers point out the vertical and horizontal dimensions of Christianity: loving God and loving neighbor. The church’s history is filled with stories of believers who drifted toward one emphasis or the other, ignoring Jesus’ description of the essential connection between loving God and loving neighbor. Focusing on one without the other is not the life Jesus described.
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