Many years after the Apostle John revealed that God's essence is love; affirming that love is therefore all the religion He desires "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." [3]
There are those, however, who do not perceive Christianity as simple, but as very complex, with hundreds of rules to be observed, things to avoid, rituals to be followed and much to be learned. The Swiss theologian, Emil Brunner, explained the apparent complexity with these words: "So long as we stand "under the Law", we cannot perceive this hidden unity of all the commandments. It is part of legalism that the will of God must appear to it as a multiplicity of commandments. In actual fact, it is one and indivisible; God wants nothing else except love because He Himself is love" [4].
Similarly, Augustine of Hippo said, "Therefore once for all this short command is given to you: Love and do what you will. If you keep silent, keep silent by love. If you speak, speak by love. If you correct, correct by love. If you pardon, pardon by love. Let love be rooted in you, and from the root nothing but good can grow.”
This is not a hard concept to understand, but a very simple one, and it holds within itself the answers to any question it may cause. For example, one may ask: "But if, as Augustine said, we can just love and do as we please, there could be those who misapply this liberty, take wrongful advantage of it and exploit the weak." In this case it is obvious that the people in question would not be the ones following Augustine’s advice to love, because love does no harm to its neighbour. The question is, therefore, no longer one of faith, but of social order, and for this there are ample and appropriate regulations. For those who, instead, embraces the simple rule of love, it is not only unconceivable to take advantage of the weak, but there will even be an added motivation to help them. In practice, love is a stricter discipline and goes further than the laws of social order, because it actively seeks the welfare of others. While the law employs fear as a deterrent against wrongdoing "if you steal, you go to jail," love, for those who have chosen it as a discipline of life, does not only generates self-control when tempted to steal, but also creates the desire to give to those in need. The very words of St. Augustine indicate that the freedom of love does not imply libertinism "love and do 'what you will ... let love be rooted in you, and from the root nothing but good can grow." This is the core and simplicity of Christianity.
Some may say, "but if it's all so easy, then why all these divisions within Christianity? Why so many churches, with so many differing theological views and why so much feuding among them? Why all this arguing about tradition, baptism, Eucharist, eschatology, hermeneutics, exegesis, soteriology, etc.? Among so many voices, who's right? Who can we really trust to tell us what Christianity is like, its ethics, teachings and purpose? To answer these questions I recommend the study method which I referred to in the introduction. It is a simple and practical approach.
1. Matthew 19; 14
2. Matthew 22; 37 to 40
3. 1st John 4; 7,8 and 16
4. Emil Brunner – from “Letter to the Romans”
