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Justin's avatar

"There is a view – I cannot say widely held or not, but I believe it is – that not only is Jesus foretold in the Old Testament, but that the Old Testament should be read through the lens that is Jesus Christ."

In the circles I run in (Eastern Orthodox for the most part), this is the view of how to read the entirety of scripture, OT, NT, St Paul, and even the Fathers, Canons, etc. St Paul might agree with this view, as would Moses (see John 5:46). I agree that re-reading scriptures, esp. Paul, through the lens of Jesus would indeed change how we interact with one another as brothers and sisters, not just within Christianity, but also outside.

I guess I only say this to encourage you to go in this direction. It is the correct one. I can't tell you what you will find on the other side, however, only that it will be glorious.

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Roger Mitchell's avatar

Beautiful! Thank you.

One of the ways I justify "loving my neighbor as I do myself" is to imagine the way I want my neighbor to treat me and then treat him in that manner. It is certain that I don't want my neighbor to treat me badly, so why would I even consider treating him like that? Yet we do, in more ways than can be enumerated here, most egregiously and obviously in the way we use government and law to force our neighbors to act and behave in certain ways and to fund our tactics via taxation, which is only a "legal" form of theft.

When my neighbor's political maneuverings are incorporated into everyday life, I complain. Often. Loudly. And then, I go to work to overcome them by getting my own political maneuverings built into the "top dog" spot...and my neighbor complains. Often. Loudly. And then...

The cycle never ends.

I want my neighbor to love me as he does himself, but this means that I must first show him the love that I have for myself. There is no other explanation which works. It is a most ingenious paradox.

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