“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” - Matthew 5:43-48
Wednesday night on Fox News, Vice President JD Vance said that there is an “old-school, very Christian concept.”
“You love your family, then you love your neighbor, then you love your community, then you love you fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
This is, indeed, not a Christian concept. The Christian principle as laid out in Matthew 5:43-48 is very clear that the way of Christ is marked by loving enemy as neighbor. There is no hierarchy in the way of Christian love.
In Paul’s writing and in James’ writing there are sharp rebukes for followers of Christ who give preferential treatment.
What Vice President Vance is doing here is creating an axiom that is not reflected in the Scripture or in the way of Christ. Similarly to other axioms that are popular, like, “God helps those who help themselves,” or “God will never give you more than you can handle.” All of us are given to creating axioms like this in an effort to simplify or make things a bit easier to wrap our minds around. I am confident that I do it as well.
We are indeed to love our family, we are indeed to love our neighbor, our community, and beyond but nowhere in Scripture is that love rooted in any kind of favoritism or hierarchy.
The radical nature of the way of Christ is to love those who are different from ourselves as ourselves.
In Mark 12 Jesus in response to the question, “What is the greatest commandment?” says this,
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Loving our neighbor as ourselves is the basic minimum standard in the way of Christ.
I think this is why GK Chesterton’s quote resonates so deeply with me, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”
To create a hierarchy of the way we love is easier. It is easier to say, “At least I loved my family.” But, this is not the way of Christ.
The way of Christ is to love enemies.
It is an all encompassing love.