CONTRA FATUM

"“For [God] sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness; and every race knows that adultery, and fornication, and homicide, 2312 and such like, are sinful; and though they all commit such practices, yet they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously whenever they so do, with the exception of those who are possessed with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by education, by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, or rather quenched and put under, their natural ideas. For we may see that such persons are unwilling to submit to the same things which they inflict upon others, and reproach each other with hostile consciences for the acts which they perpetrate. And hence I think that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spoke well when He summed up all righteousness and piety in two commandments. They are these: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all t...

James J. Tissot - Pharisees ask Christ about the Greatest Commandment "`Teacher, which [is] the great command in the Law?' And Jesus said to him, `Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding -- this is a first and great command; and the second [is] like to it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; on these -- the two commands -- all the law and the prophets do hang.'" (Matt 22:36-40, YLT) I've stumbled into some discussions lately about Christian ethics (so-called). It's the usual 'yes, love, but ...' thing. For some reason some Christians want all kinds of rules, besides the commandment to love others. The bible, these people say, is a 'moral authority'. Hence they sometimes reiterate Matt 22:36-40, where Jesus explains a Jewish Pharisee that the great(est) commandments in the Law is to love God and your neighbor. But in order to know what it means to love God, the arg...