What do you believe the bible teaches is the ultimate virtue?

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe it's compassion. Most people think it's courage or honesty or hard work, but I think compassion is the main virtue. Cause I believe God warned me, to work for His purposes and not for money or status and that if I worshiped money instead of God, He would abandon me and I would be a victim of chaos and tragedy again. My life before I became religious was a living nightmare, I was always sick with some new health problem and my heart and mind was always anxious and terrified.

[Nattek]

Why do I got the feeling this is a follow up question to my opinion about collecting proverbs? 😛 But it's all written right there in the Book, so let's find out from what Jesus himself.

A scribe once asked of Him of all his teachings and the Torah what the most important commandment. He answered that foremost is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. But then He continued to add the second most important is to love your neighbor as yourself.. What's interesting about that is the 10 commandments, when listed in order, starts off with our relationship with God and then our relationship with our neighbor.

To the atheist reading this, I doubt the first won't mean much you, but take it as a warning that if God is not first in your life, you will worship something else whether it be money, a political or community leader, or yourself. Whatever you make first in your life, make damn sure it's worthy of your commitment because you will idolize something.

And then there is the second and that's the ultimate virtue I'm proclaiming. How you treat and interact with fellow man. How you treat yourself is how you should treat others. There are the obvious instructions that are written in the 10 commandments such as "thou shalt not murder" (which is often stated as kill which is a mistranslation of the original Hebrew but that's a whole other topic). The rest are scattered about other books, particularly when it comes to His teachings (that's the red text in the new testiment for the uninitiated).

So what does that mean, to love thy neighbor? It's funny how in English we define multiple meanings into the single word of 'love' and how it's so easy for people to misconstrued the intended meaning. At least the Greeks had the sense to break it up into four (or eight if you break this down more) and Arabic apparently has eleven! Obviously we're not going about in one big 'eros' orgy. I'm not sure if any of the Greek definitions quite exactly describe it but many of the new testiment authors wrote in Greek or were Greek themselves and they usually describe God's love and our love for him and others is agape. In the lexicon of those writings I think of love for others as brotherly love, affection, good will, selflessness, and benevolence kind of love.

So while I say the the ultimate virtue we can show is God's second most important commandment of loving thy neighbor, it cannot be so without the first. It's easier to love others once you understand how God loves you first as a blue print to treat other people. Even if you are an atheist, go read up on the gospel with a mindset of it as an instructional manual. Grow in how to properly agape other people. The only other option is nihilism which may have short term happiness but will end in self destruction.

[patrick994]

The Bible's greatest teaching is this: Love your neighbour as yourself, the Bible gives a clear message of love and peace, urging us to forgive our debtors as Jesus did those who crucified him

[purple_seamoth]

I am an atheist but I agree with you, being compassionate is the right answer...

[love_conquers_lust]

It's addicting being empowered to help others. When you know you can help others, you don't feel powerless relying on someone else. That can destroy confidence.