Poets, artists, philosophers and writers throughout history have focused on love and what it means. The Greek has three words for it – eros (erotic love), philio (friendship love), and agape (all sacrificing love).

Romans 13:10 sums it up in the most concise, clear and tangible way possible. Love “does no harm“! Three words from a negative approach that encompass quite succinctly the meaning of love. When someone is hurt; spiritually, economically, emotionally, physically or however, then they are acutely aware of that hurt. It says “no harm to a neighbor”, and we are told in the two great commandments, to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. A commandment is a law of God’s. Doing no harm is the “fulfillment of the law” because it is the fulfillment of loving your neighbor.

To write or speak of love from the positive approach takes tens of millions of examples and hundreds of thousands of words to explain and demonstrate and milennia of history. Doing no harm on the other hand is as concise and recognizable a definition for which anyone could possibly ask, and it addresses the immediate – no procrastination – no waffling!

The rub comes when people take actions or speak words without thinking of how they may be causing harm. As one example, if you go to the voting booth and vote your neighbor into debt by supporting a bond issue, have you done him any harm? If you vote for the lesser of two evils at the ballot box, and yet, you still are voting for evil, have you done your neighbor any harm? If you let the condition of your property (home) run down by not keeping your house painted and in good repair, are you harming your neighbor by having an adverse affect on his property value? If you assume something about your neighbor’s actions or beliefs without having factual references, and you pass on your negative opinion about him to others, have you done him harm? If your neighbor’s dog escapes the back yard and is running around unrestrained – are you harming your neighbor by not telling him, or if he’s unavailable, by not restraining and confining the dog yourself or contacting the dog catcher? Are you potentially harming other neighbors if the dog has a violent nature and bites people and/or children? Are you harming your neighbor if he has an obvious need, and you turn a blind eye to that need when you are most capable of addressing and satisfying that need and present there to do it? Worse yet, are you harming your neighbor by voting to have government take care of that need?

How do you love your neighbor? Do him not harm – either by commission or omission. It can be no simpler than that, and yet, it requires thoughtfulness, knowledge of reality and the mechanics of society and government. It requires paying thoughtful attention to what you do and say with the other guy’s best interest in mind and at heart. It requires a serious Biblical knowledge and application of your life!

Pensiamento Peligroso