Paul took conventional Jewish religiosity and stripped it down to what he considered its fundamentals. Many of the earliest disciples were Jews who continued to practice the ancient traditions that are defined in the Hebrew Bible, such as dietary restrictions and purity laws. Paul said that these things don't matter. The sole requirement of the follower of Jesus is to love one another.
On the surface, this sounds trite. This is only due to our culture's watered down trivialization of the term "love." In Paul's Greek language, there were several terms that fell within the meaning of the English word "love." These included philia, eros, and agape. Philia is what we think of today as devotion and adherence to those who are like us. Agape is the most challenging form of love, and it is the term that Paul uses when he says that we are called to love one another.
Agape can be considered love of the stranger, the alien, and even the enemy. Agape means devotion and concern for those who are strangers to us. Paul looked around him and saw hatred, anger, and violence, all stemming from humanity's unwillingness to practice agape love.
The basis for our ethos as followers of Jesus should always be concern and devotion for the stranger, because in doing so, we are emulating God, who sought our salvation when we were strangers to God and lost in sin.
Supporting the work and mission of Caney Spring United Methodist Church and Berlin United Methodist Church, two churches partnered in the ministry of making disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, located in Marshall County, Tennessee.
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