The Demand of the Gospel According to Rudolf Bultmann

You may have to read this more than once - but it's worth it.

 

"The second command determines the meaning of the first:

in loving my neighbour I prove my obedience to God.

There is no obedience to God in a vacuum, so to speak,

no obedience separate from the concrete situation

in which I stand as a man among men,

no obedience which is directed immediately toward God.

Whatever of kindness, pity, mercy, I show my neighbour

is not something which I do for God,

but something which I really do for my neighbour;

the neighbour is not a sort of tool by means of which I practise the love of God,

and love of neighbour cannot be practised with a look aside toward God.

Rather, as I can love my neighbour only when I surrender my will completely to God’s will,

so I can love God only while I will what He wills, while I really love my neighbour."

 

Told you * you have to read it more than once!

 

(Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus and the Word.)