The third chapter of Jones’ book is titled The Motive of the Christian Life, and covers topics such as the human heart, Christian freedom, love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. This was probably one of the most helpful chapters I’ve read on ethics, possibly ever. I have often dismissed the discipline of ethics from my study out of fear that ethics tended to result into legalism. I could not have been more wrong!
Jones set up his discussion of the human heart by being realistic, and thoroughly reformed, in his understanding of the problem facing the human heart. He explains that with the glory of God as the end, or goal, of the Christian life we run into a problem, “nobody naturally seeks this end; all seek happiness, but no one seeks God” (37). He continues and says at the end of the page, “Something drastic has to happen for human beings to make God their goal, a change of heart so profound it is like being born all over again, this time from above” (37). Change of the human heart, is wrought by God, through his gift of faith, which produces also a hope and love for God.
The second section discussing Christian freedom draws much from both Luther and Calvin. Jones makes it clear that the reformers did not teach that justification by faith alone frees the Christian from works but as Luther puts it, “from false opinions concerning works, that is, the foolish presumption that justification is acquired by works” (39). Then he moves on to Calvin’s understanding of Christian obedience and freedom. For Calvin the Christian is free from the fear of punishment that the law brings but still finds the law useful in discerning what is pleasing to God. And as one discerns this, the Christian is freed into a child-like obedience of pleasing one’s father, because he loves you rather than slaving away for the acceptance of one’s father. Calvin and Jones also, pull the imagery of parent and child into a wonderful place in Christian obedience. I have always found this imagery to be incredibly helpful and I was happy to know that Calvin also saw it as such.
The rest of the chapter focused on love of God, neighbor and self. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he responded with, “Love the Lord your God…[and] your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37–40). This section might be the best explanation of the Greatest Commandment I’ve ever heard. The most helpful part was the discussion about what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. I’ve heard a wide range of opinions about what that looks like and what exactly it means. Jones understands it to mean, “Love your neighbor as a person like yourself.” Very often I’ve heard this command interpret in a quantitative sense meaning, “Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself” and sometimes it would be argued that you shouldn’t love anyone more than anyone else, especially not yourself. This interpretation never seemed helpful to me and I always thought that it overlooked the natural bond that forms between people. I always thought, “Wait… I have to love everyone else just as much and no less than I love my best friend, or my future wife?” That never made any sense, it seemed to disregard the presence of “favorites” in Jesus’ own life and ministry. Jesus talked with Peter, James and John more often than the others, doesn’t that seem to imply that Jesus loved and cared for them more than the others?
But now with Jones the second greatest commandment makes more sense. Seeing ones neighbor as like me, (i.e., in the same problems, struggles, places and world) causes me to have an empathetic response towards their wants and needs because their wants and needs are MY wants and needs. As Jones also points out, “Reading the second great commandment in a qualitative sense also fits with Jesus’ other comprehensive principle of love” (50).
The other very helpful part of this chapter was its discussion of self-love. In light of the second great commandment’s charge to “Love your neighbor as yourself” Jones tries to develop a biblical understanding of self-love and then discover what kind of self-love is present in this command.
He describes self-love as taking three different forms, sinful self-love, natural self-love and moral self-love. Most often, I think of self-love as selfishness, as sinful, which might be why this command has always seemed odd to me. But Jones does a wonderful job showing that sinful self-love is real, but not what Jesus is calling for here. The second is also natural self-love is also present in the scriptures but for this to be what Jesus is calling for would mean that two very different kinds of love are being described. It does not flow with the sentence well if Jesus meant that we should, “agape love our neighbor as we naturally care and love ourselves.” So finally Jones introduces the concept of self-love as moral and this is what he argues the second great commandment is calling Christians to.
Jones explains that Augustine understood this moral self-love in a positive light. Jones agrees with Augustine and putting it in his own words Jones says, “[moral self-love] is a theocentric self-regard that is assigned paradigmatic value in the commandment to love our neighbor as ourself” (56). And he even calls this self-love a care for one’s own happiness and recognition of one’s own worth. But in order to understand this moral self-love in the most Biblical sense is to heed Dr. Richard Mouw’s words, “The Christian must be willing to say to God, ‘Make me into the kind of self that you want me to be. Transform, if it please you, my understanding of what it is that will bring me happiness’” (57). So this moral self-love that Jesus calls for is a transformed and theocentric love of self. Understanding and loving yourself rightly because of a right understanding of who God is.
