LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF IS ABOUT HONOUR - THAT WAS WHAT
"LOVE" MEANT IN THOSE TOXIC DAYS!
Jesus when he taught you must love your neighbour as yourself was
being very manipulative. Locking that into his ideology meant
that a person who would try to leave it would be seen as insulting
their neighbour and rejecting proper love for them.
Bible talk about love and love your neighbour must be read in the
light of how both Old and New Testaments seek to give you a reason
to die and insist that life is hard and dangerous so you may as well
use it by living a difficult though righteous life. Jesus said we
all have a cross and a cross is about a slow execution. And there
are many texts that are about honour. Honour was put first in those
days. Honour appears in the ten commandments with regarding to
honouring your father and mother which means “don’t disgrace them”
more than anything else. Religious experts take it to mean
that yes but not just that. They say it is about respecting
all honorable authority such as your enslaver, your master, and your
king. They say that it is about honour and honour is more
expansive than just parents.
Jesus himself defended the death penalty for boys who cursed their
parents. That harsh judgement shows how strongly his religious faith
was about honour.
As the main command is to love God and honour him with all your
heart your motive in honouring others is to honour the God in them.
But it underlines that it is about honour. The believer is asked by
Jesus to pray and not to do it for favours but to align with what
God wills. In that light “treat others as you want to be treated” is
referring to somebody who is about trying to line up to God’s will.
Jesus does not forgive the adulteress in John 8 but merely says he
does not condemn her to death which means only on that occasion.
He allowed her to be dishonoured and embarrassed.
He humiliated the Canaanite pagan woman and called her a dog and was
slow to listen to her. She only got help when she admitted to
his satisfaction that she was inferior to him and his Jewish culture
and race.
Jesus links forgiveness to you accepting that it is over and the
other has agreed to make amends and repent. Matthew 18 has him
saying you must treat a brother who won't change as a tax collector
- ie pariah. Honour based
systems are unforgiving and give out similar accounts of forgiveness
and don't care that they are not very effective. Jesus made
sure that forgiving would be seen as a horrible thing when he said
that those who do not forgive will suffer before God and be judged.
Forced or pressured forgiveness is not forgiveness. It is about
honour and show but it is not real.
Even the supposed return of Jesus from the dead is about defeating
the humiliation of the cross. It is about honour and Jesus
boasted that God would honour him and raise him up.
Honour is why women accused of adultery are cast out. Honour is why they are often beaten and killed. Honour is why
you will be murdered in many parts of the world for changing your
faith. Honour puts pressure on people to live their lives for
others without ever being true to themselves. Religion is not
the only thing that takes love and flavours it with honour.
Husbands hit their spouses for perceived dishonour. It is love
but bad love.