Few words have been more misunderstood—or more trivialized—than love.
A Christmas Reflection Series: The Son of God — History, Ethics, and Moral Responsibility
In public life, it is often dismissed as naïve, private, or irrelevant to serious matters of power, policy, and security. Yet in the teachings of Jesus, love was never a feeling. It was an ethic—public, demanding, and measurable by action.
When Jesus spoke of loving one’s neighbor, he was not referring to affection. He was invoking responsibility.
This idea was deeply rooted in the Jewish covenantal tradition, where love meant obligation toward the community: care for the poor, protection for the vulnerable, restraint in the use of power. Justice and love were inseparable.
Jesus radicalized this ethic by extending it beyond familiar boundaries—beyond tribe, status, and even enmity. Love, in this sense, became a discipline: a refusal to allow fear, resentment, or advantage to determine how others are treated.
This is why his message was not merely spiritual—it was socially disruptive.
A society governed by such an ethic cannot easily justify exploitation.
Institutions shaped by it must answer for who is excluded.
Power exercised within it is accountable not only to law, but to conscience.
In The Son of God, I argue that this understanding of love functioned as a quiet critique of both imperial rule and religious formalism. It challenged systems that claimed legitimacy while neglecting those they governed.
Seen this way, love is not the opposite of realism. It is a test of it.
Tomorrow, I’ll turn to another dimension of this ethic: why Jesus’ authority emerged so strongly among the poor, the marginalized, and those with little stake in existing systems.
For those who wish to explore these ideas further, The Son of God is available as a holiday e-book.
What we call “idealism” is often just ethics taken seriously.
This reflection draws from The Son of God, a historical and ethical study of Jesus’ teachings, currently available as a holiday e-book.
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