The other day I was reading a book review and was sad, though, even more sadly not surprised, to see “religion” listed under its content warnings. Not “religious abuse,” not “cults,” but “religion” itself. And, being an American book, the religion in question was Christianity. What a sad and disturbing statement on the state of Christianity that an entire generation has grown up with such a distorted understanding of Christ as his teachings that they associate the whole faith with repression, anger, and hatred of one’s enemies. And most of these people did not learn this from antagonistic secular media, but from growing up in the Church. But such a Christianity bears no resemblance to the way of Jesus or the teachings of the New Testament. And this is the theme of today’s Epistle reading, Romans 13.8-14.
This passage comes from a long section of rapid-fire advice that takes up much of the last three chapters of Romans. It begins:
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 word, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (13.8-10)
This is a particularly interesting paragraph because it’s one of the few places where Paul quotes a teaching of Jesus that is familiar to us from the Gospels (in this case Matthew 22 and Mark 12). He insists, with Jesus, that the whole Law is fulfilled in the single precept, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Then he clarifies that “Love does no wrong to a neighbour.” As a saying I’ve seen more often recently puts it, true faith has no collateral damage. True religion — true Christianity — has no victims. It does not destroy, it builds up. It is not cruel, it is compassionate. It knows no hate, only love, and the love-in-action that Jesus demonstrated so fully in his own life. There can be no hedging on this, no “Well it may seem like I’m harming them, but because I’m doing it to promote a ‘Christian lifestyle’ it’s really love.” That’s a lie, and a self-righteous temptation. Let us remember that when asked ‘Who is my neighbour?’, Jesus responded by telling a story in which the ‘neighbour’ was the person a ‘good Jew’ would want least to love.
There are many things about our faith that are nuanced and in shades of grey. But this teaching on love is not one of them. It’s as clear cut as they come. There is no Christian witness in rejecting someone, refusing someone, or hurting someone. Only in loving them, which means loving them in ways they recognize as loving. Full stop. And, as the second half of the passage reminds us, this is no minor issue. Too many of us are sleepwalking through life, mistaking other agendas for the way of Jesus. The time to wake up is now:
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (13.11-14)
There’s a call here to wake up, to get our head in the game, and set aside the things that distract us and trip us up from the way of Jesus’ love. I’ve written previously about the specific things Paul lists here, but the point for today is that they get in the way of love. Why? Because love demands us to be present with someone, and we can’t be present if we’re distracted, impaired, or focused on our petty grievances. Paul uses the general moral and ethical language of his day (see also: here, here, and here), but in today’s terms, we might conclude by saying that in a world full of distraction, we need to be intentional about not feeding the things that contribute to distracting us from love.
Love is not an easy way. But whether we like it or not, if we call ourselves Christian it is the way to which we are called. And love has no collateral damage. It’s time to wake up.
Matthew Root 
Being a Christian is seen as enabling or something now. The secular humanist philosophy is focusing more on vengeance-as-justice and we have no room for forgiveness or compassion. (Not saying that people should not face criminal charges where warranted, but there is a bloodthirstiness to it now. And if friends or family dare speak up for their loved ones, even just as a plea for leniency, they are lambasted.) Christians (and I would argue many other religious adherents) at least believe themselves to be sinners, though that has definitely been abused and distorted. Secular humanism is basically all about being morally righteous and innocent until you fall, and then you are forever tainted and can never reach that state of goodness again. It is purity culture as much as fundamentalist religion is. And unlike Christians, you can’t appeal to “love thy neighbour”.
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We’re definitely in an awkward moment culturally. I think it’s fair to accept the criticism that Christianity has historically focused on the restoration of sinners to the exclusion of concern for the restoration of the sinned-against, and that’s perpetuated abusive dynamics in families, politics, and society writ large. The frustration I sense in popular culture right now is not really about forgiveness as much as it is about empty apologies and ‘I’m sorry’ being treated like a magic word. But at the same time, we haven’t found equilibrium in this yet, so we’re now in a moment where there is a good and right desire to hold people accountable for what they’ve done but without anything to leaven that. And so, yes, we get to that point you talked about where people are forever defined by their worst moments, in a way that isn’t healthy for anyone. I hope that as these conversations move forward, we will be able to find some balance.
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