On two occasions (at least), Jesus summed up the teaching of his Bible (which Christians call the Old Testament) very concisely.
On one occasion he says that it is all based on two commands (Matthew 22:37-40): love God, and love your neighbour, and he quotes these commands directly from the books of Deuteronomy (6:5) and Leviticus (19:18). On another occasion, he sums it up as “do to others what you would have them do to you.”
Sometimes known as the golden rule, versions of this appear across different religions and cultures.
Either way, and in common with many other parts of Jesus’ teaching, the practice of kindness is put at the heart of the Christian life.
In the Diocese of Worcester, we ask each other, as individuals and communities, to focus on how we are putting four values into practice: love, compassion, justice, and freedom. These are the values we see embedded in the many different ways Jesus spoke about, and lived out, what he called “the kingdom of God.”
