MATHETΩN

One of the anonymously-compiled “Seven Deadly Social Sins” is: “Worship without sacrifice”. I will pass over my immediate reaction to reading this — America! Christianity! — and spare what would be a bored readership. Instead, I will limn some later thoughts I had: that this description touches a seminal difference between Jesus and the religions.

In most religions, they who are called the good are who refrain from bad. Here are capsules of several major religions:

“Do nothing to others that would hurt you if it were done to you” (Mahabharata v.1517).

“Do not offend others, since you would not want to be offended” (Udanavarga v.18).

“The rule of goodness: That which we do not wish to be done to us, we do not do to others” (The Analects of Confucius xv.23).

“That which you do not wish for yourself, you shall not wish for your neighbor” (Talmud Shabbat 31).

Fundamentalist Christianity is likewise characterized by what its good members must not do or must not think.

In contrast, Jesus said, first, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone,” and ceaselessly anathematized the religious who called themselves, or wished to be called, the good. Second, he offered this capsule:

“And as you wish men to do by you, so do by them” (Luke vi.31).

There we have it: The religious are to be called the good by doing no bad. Jesus was called the devil’s son while doing good, and he taught doing the good.