Toward a solution. Part six: Focal point

I find my ideas have grown and changed in the years since I took up the question of Christian unity. I have found a consolidating theme for my reasoning, and single point of focus, in Christ's new commandment that we love one another as he has loved us. I now take as first principles that this commandment is an achievable goal and that in general, we are failing to achieve it.

Starting from that point makes a clear question for us to examine. How and why are we failing? One or more of the following reasons may be at work in the lives and faiths of various people. I do not suppose the list is complete but it is a fair start.

I may add to this list from time to time as more reasons occur to me. I should point out that I am guilty of any charge I make, below, or a great many of them, so this is not a matter of criticising from a superior stance. I would say we are all in this together.

Reasons we fail at Christ's new commandment:

  • We don't believe success is possible. Alternatively, we believe it is possible but cannot see how it is to be accomplished.
  • We see few or no examples in our own lives, so the very useful learning method of daily observation and imitation is lost to us.
  • We use reasoning, our divisive theologies, to explain to ourselves that those other Christians are really not like us, so we feel that we lack the common ground fully to love them.
  • We succumb to religious anger, thinking our fellow Christian raca and fool, because he does not see the wisdom of our own positions.
  • We use reasoning, our capacity to make excuses, to evade the point of the new commandment. One example of this is to treat it as if it is substantially the same thing as "love your neighbor as yourself," though both the object of the love and the performance standard are different.
  • We are afraid of the level of personal involvement with the spiritual realm that the new commandment appears to call for.
  • We are afraid of the level of personal involvement with each other that the new commandment appears to call for.
  • We find that our churches deem our Christian lives to be adequate ones, without emphasizing the new commandment, or pressing for its fuller implementation. We tick all the boxes of religious conformity without it.
  • We tend toward reticence when we do have real love, for showy impersonations of Christian charity are not unknown among us.


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