Ruled by Compassion

As Jesus’ cousin and possibly His closest human friend, John is considered the Apostle closest to the Master’s heart, particularly in his writings. It was John who revealed that Jesus said at the Last Supper: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Yet it John himself who also wrote: “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11). In similar words, he also wrote:

And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. (2 John 5-6)

When it comes to agape, it’s a command that goes back to the very beginning of divine revelation. Jesus nailed it down quite succinctly:

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.'” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-28)

While Jesus used that same teaching in other contexts, this one is where He goes on to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Our point here is that this business of agape is founded in the Covenant of Moses, and was well established in rabbinical teaching long before Jesus was born.

What made that commandment new during the Last Supper, at the initiation of the New Covenant, was that Jesus specifically pointed to His sacrifice on the Cross as the new standard defining this ancient command. He personified the Law of God, regardless whether we call it the Old Covenant or the New Covenant. It was the Old Testament renewed in His Person, which made it fresh and new.

The issue with the Good Samaritan hints at a radical change between the Old and New, in that it renews the meaning of the Old Covenant itself, long forgotten by Jews. The definition of “neighbor” was essentially “covenant brother/sister.” The lawyer was looking for an excuse to restrict the meaning to those who were on his side of the partisan divide in Judah at that time. But Jesus was pointing back to the Covenant itself: Your neighbor is anyone who clings to the meaning of the Covenant. The Samaritan acted according to the Covenant, despite not being officially under the Covenant. Your neighbor is whomever shows brotherly compassion as God defines it. Racial identity and Covenant rituals didn’t mean anything against the sincere manifestation of commitment to God’s ways.

And this was the proper answer based on Moses. Yet it was also the proper answer based on Christ, the initiator of the New Covenant. Don’t get hung up on the words “old” and “new” in connection with God’s Law. In a very fundamental way, nothing has changed since we were expelled from the Garden of Eden. It’s all still a matter of God’s divine moral character. What’s new is that it’s now revealed in a Person who still lives, and we can get to know that living New Testament in our hearts.

One of the things that was very much changed at the Cross was the order of things. In the Old Covenant, we are were required to submit to the Law in order to find redemption. In the New Covenant, we are permitted to find redemption first, so that we can go back and find out how to submit to the Law. We are allowed to discover up front that the Law of God is its own reward.

This is the “treasure in clay jars” (2 Corinthians 4:7) — the power of Christ as the revelation of God living in our convictions. This is a precious thing we have rediscovered, and it’s clearly not what one gets from mainstream Christian religion. Radix Fidem is not a new religion; we are simply trying to recover what God says is ours. Of course we want it for other folks. We could wish that all of God’s children could discover what we have found. How can we not love the other children of our Father? We find them lying in the road, beaten down and nearly dead. Call us what you will, but we are determined to provide whatever we can to bring healing.