Thirty years ago I purchased bible commentaries in the Tyndale New Testament series. Recently I began reading them again. One author states that it is fashionable to place the Great Commandment beside the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) as denoting the social responsibility of the church alongside its evangelistic responsibility. The author argues that the second Great Commandment stems from the first and if we fail to recognise this we are left with a 'shallow humanitarianism'.
I prefer to link the second Great Commandment with the injunction of Jesus to 'follow me'. Bonhoeffer makes the point of the centrality of prayer in his costly grace. We have noted previously that we do not pray to God to effect social justice: we pray to God for strength and guidance to go out and effect change.
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