Christianity could be pronounced as growing and thriving in many parts of Africa if it were to be judged on the: church buildings; number of Bibles and other Christian literature being distributed; proliferation of church and fellowship groups meeting and of Christian celebrations. The growth of Christianity based on these indicators has been phenomenal.
The Bible is clear, however, that using these criteria does not give an accurate picture. It is not church buildings, books, or meetings that mark progress. The success of Christianity has more to do with the quality of life of individuals, communities, and the wider society who have received the gospel and their impact on the wider society.
The gospel is evident in transformed relationships, because real life is all about relationships.
Paul made the point to the believers in Rome: “the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). “A life of goodness”—or, in some translations, “righteousness”—implies living in right standing with God. It also implies being in right standing with our community and God’s creation. “Peace” is total well-being, both of the individual and of society. “Joy” is a deep sense and feeling of contentment and happiness that does not depend on circumstances.
Simply put, Paul is saying that the gospel is evident in transformed relationships, because real life is all about relationships. Our relationships matter. In fact, they are the real matter. That is why love matters!
Love is at the Heart of the Gospel
Love is the substance, ethic, logic, and heart (emotion) of God’s reign in time and eternity. Jesus was clear that the entire Old Testament narrative, the entire law, and all the demands of the prophets are based on two commandments. Jesus said, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself'” (Matthew 22:37-39).
Love is the substance, ethic and logic of God’s reign.
The apostle John, the one often called the ‘apostle of love,’ was emphatic in his letters: “God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him” (1 John 4:8-9). In the Gospel of John, he summarised the entire life and ministry of Jesus as the showing of God’s love. “This is how God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16).
The apostle Paul was clear. He said he could have all types of spiritual gifts, religious devotion, or self-sacrifice, but if he did not love others, he would be nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Show Love to All
One could say that since the ultimate subject of the Bible is God, then the ultimate subject of the Bible is love. But God’s love is difficult to understand fully, because God is difficult to understand fully. Human experience cannot exhaust the vastness of God and his love. We only know in part. But we know that God’s love is just because God is just. Therefore, our love too must be just.
The ultimate subject of the Bible is love.
The two great commandments have two dimensions: vertical and horizontal—God and neighbour. God matters. Our neighbours matter. Community and society matter to God. As the prophets of the Old Testament showed, where we find the false worship of God, we also find injustice and oppression. Of particular significance are individuals, communities, and parts of society that are on the margins. These are the social outcasts, the poor, the oppressed, the prisoners, the widows and orphans, the strangers and the refugees. Jesus taught that how we treat the “least of these” would be the basis of judgement as to who would enjoy eternal life with the Father (Matthew 25:40).
What About My Enemies?
The other “neighbours” that Jesus said matter most are those we describe as enemies. Many of the Jewish religious leaders, particularly the Sadducees and Pharisees, were troubled and angered by this teaching and with Jesus identifying himself as the Anointed One, the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus’ instruction to his followers to love their enemies angered the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees.
Jesus taught that ‘neighbours’ included enemies.
They would not have taken offence if Jesus said that the evidence of true devotion to God was love for neighbour. This teaching was part of Jewish religious life. What angered his Jewish audience was who Jesus included as a “neighbour.” The Jews had long understood “neighbour” to be a fellow Israelite. And, if it were to extend beyond this, then it would include only the non-Israelites in the land—those characterised as foreigners, strangers, and aliens. But Jesus taught that “neighbours” included enemies.
Near the top of the list of enemies of the Jews were Samaritans. And the Roman occupation forces must have topped the list of persecutors. So Jesus’ words rattled them. “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbour’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:43-44).
The Lesson of the Good Samaritan
For many Jews, “enemy” and “Samaritan” were identical. Samaritans were the result of intermarriage between the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and foreign ethnic groups brought to Israel by the Assyrians in the eighth century BC. When Jews returned from exile in Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, they did not let the Samaritans help. So the Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim. In 128 BC, John Hyrcanus, a Jewish leader, destroyed the Samaritan temple. The Samaritans considered the Jews apostate. The Jews despised Samaritans, considering them to be ethnically impure—a hybrid, neither fully Jew nor fully Gentile. They judged them to be heretics—followers of a false religion with their temple at Mount Gerizim instead of in Jerusalem. It had come to be accepted that “Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans” (John 4:9).
Human worth isn’t conferred by class, racial, ethnic, or religious identity.
In his parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus identified “neighbour” with the Samaritan who extended care and compassion to a robbery victim (Luke 10:25-37). It was a radical message. The parable explains Jesus’ teaching of loving your neighbour who is an enemy. The irony in the story is that neither the priest nor the Levite—two of the most highly regarded persons in Jewish society—came to the aid of the victim. In fact, the obstacle that hindered the priest and Levite from acting with mercy was religion, what made them respectable in Jewish society. It was the despised and mocked person—a Samaritan—who acted with mercy.
Jesus’ verdict: The Samaritan was the authentic neighbour! And Jesus commended him for showing solidarity with another person, irrespective of any ethical or religious considerations. Jesus’ message was very clear. The “enemy” may sometimes prove to be more humane than someone held in high regard by society. Jesus upset the shared Jewish belief. He challenged the stereotype of the Samaritan as the enemy and accorded to the “enemy” equal worth and dignity. Human worth and dignity are not conferred by class, racial, ethnic, or religious identity. They are gifts from God to all people.
Sin Makes Our Love Selective
Our problem, as human beings, is that we easily confer worth and dignity to the people we like or who like us. We also like people who are similar to us. These are our neighbours. And we often demean or even abuse the worth and dignity of those who differ from us or ours. This group includes people we do not like and those who may hate us, as well as those on the margins—those we might call “the other neighbours.”
We confer worth and dignity to the people we like or who like us.
What distinguishes those who only love themselves from those who love God is that the latter love the other neighbour as they love themselves. We naturally and easily love those who love us. We get along with the people who are part of our families, ethnic or tribal groups, and socio-economic classes. However, God’s love is most visible among his people when we are hospitable and generous towards strangers, enemies, and those on the margins. It is most visible when we show mercy and seek justice for people of a different ethnic or religious identity. It is most visible when, instead of seeking revenge against those who have injured us, we love them as we love ourselves.
Remember that acts of generosity, mercy, and justice that are motivated by God’s love are blind to identities—be they religious, cultural, social, or political. These identities often are the ones that cloud our vision of our shared common humanity. The message of the Bible is challenging: loving with the love of God entails loving all as God loves. The test of the love of all is to show goodness and mercy to those whom we expect not to reciprocate, and more especially those who, if there were a return, it would be spite. It is loving “the other neighbour.”
An African Parallel to Jews and Samaritans
In Africa today, a close parallel to the Jewish-Samaritan hostility is the Christian-Muslim rift. Like the Jewish-Samaritan conflict, the Christian-Muslim hostility has centuries of history. It is often both ethnic and theological in nature. Many Christians, like the Jews, have strong historical and theological justifications supporting their arguments to consider Islam and Muslims as the enemy to Christianity.
Sadly, many Christians speak of their Muslim neighbours as if they have less value.
Sadly, many Christians and churches speak of their Muslim neighbours as if they have less value, especially in countries where Christians are the majority. Christian leaders are often on the frontline of advocating for legal and political structures that exclude Muslims. The reverse is often true in countries where Muslims are the majority. Jesus’ message to Africa today is as clear as it was to his Jewish followers in the first century: love your enemies. For us that includes Muslims and people of other faiths.
In practical terms, how are Christians to love Muslims? What are some of the obstacles and challenges to letting God’s love flow to us together—Christians and Muslims?
1. Recognise the Good that Islam Has Done
The first challenge for Christians and churches in Africa is to remove stereotypes, misconceptions, and negative emotional opinions. Christians and churches must acknowledge that Christians and Muslims first and foremost are people. Muslims are human beings made in the image of God. They are equal in worth and dignity.
Remove stereotypes, misconceptions, and negative emotional opinions.
So Christians and churches can begin by giving up any perceptions that have demeaned Muslims in words and actions as though they were less important members of our societies. In those places with a history of marginalisation of Muslim communities, church leaders may need to ask for meetings with their counterparts in the Muslim communities, seeking reconciliation for past prejudices and injustices.
One way to remove the misconceptions is to open our eyes to the good we have seen and continue to see through the actions of Muslims. We should recognise that Islam makes a strong case for modesty, sexual purity, honesty, and many other virtues that are important to Christians.
2. Rethink the Great Commission
The second challenge for Christians and churches, particularly in the Evangelical tradition, is to rethink our understanding of mission and add to the great commission the great commandment. That is, we should be motivated not just by the duty to go but also by the command to love. Because we know that God is present among all he has made and gives worth and dignity to all people, we need to see our mission as God’s invitation to serve among all the people he loves. Mission involves both the guest and host. Both can be channels of God’s love. Our calling to Muslims, just as among ourselves, is to love as God has loved us.
Our calling is to love as God has loved us.
Hosts are called to grant hospitality. This was the experience of the European missionaries when they first came to Africa. As guests, they were only able to share the Good News of the gospel on terms set by their hosts. Even before hearing the gospel of Christ, the Africans were hospitable. As Christians and churches live out the love of God among us and Muslims, God will do his work of drawing people to himself.
Remember that Jesus said, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father Father” (Matthew 5:16). We can point people to Christ through our actions and words, but conversion is God’s work, not ours.
3. Resist Injustice and Reach Out
The third challenge is to move talk to action. How, one may ask, are Christians to love our Muslim neighbours in practical terms? The simple answer is that we love them as we love ourselves! We are to love Muslims the way we love our Christian brothers and sisters. Generosity that is motivated by God’s love demands that we open our spaces and resources for Muslims to share. Just love, which is the nature of God’s love, demands that Christians and churches be at the forefront of advocacy and activism. This includes the protection of rights of Muslim people as citizens in our countries.
In the same way we demand that Christians should be given space to practise our faith in countries where Muslims are the majority, so should we demand that in countries where Christians are in the majority space should be created to allow Muslims to practise their religion—to the extent that it does not hurt the rights of others. Such a stand will create the opportunity for dialogue and negotiation on how to live together in harmony, as citizens of the same country. The radical type of love Jesus taught means that Christians should be at the forefront of protecting the citizen rights of all people.
Points to Remember:
- The commandment to “love your neighbour” is God’s command to all of humanity. If Christians and Muslims believe they share the same heritage, they must keep this commandment and love one another.
- Christians should respect the religious practices of Muslims and protect their rights. Christians should show understanding and try to avoid direct confrontation with them whenever possible.
- Christians should show compassion and kindness to all of humanity.
- Christians should live in such a way that it demonstrates their faith rather than preaching a gospel that contradicts their lifestyle. Our lives should preach more to those outside our faith than our sermons.
- The love Jesus taught and requires us to practise is radical and often stretches Christians to do things that we do not feel comfortable doing.
- The kind of love that Jesus demonstrated to Samaritans is the same kind of love that Christians should demonstrate towards Muslims.
