Romans 13:8-10

"All the commandments can be summed up in this: Love your neighbor as yourself."
 
When we read this passage, we may say at once, "Yes, this is the teaching of Jesus," because we remember the teaching of the Great Commandment to love our neighbor that is in the gospels of Matthew (22:34-40), Mark (12:28-34) and Luke (10:25-28). Paul, however, does not tell us that he is passing on the teaching of Jesus. In fact, he does not refer at all to Jesus, but merely presents this teaching as his own. Moreover, he does not seem to know that this teaching is in any of the first three gospels of the New Testament. 

We need to be reminded that the New Testament was not formed by the church until centuries after Paul's death, and that most likely none of the gospels of the New Testament were written during the time of Paul's ministry. Paul's teaching is the earliest written affirmation we have from the the church that all the commandments of Jewish law are summed up in the teaching of Leviticus 19:18 to love our neighbor.

Is Paul merely stating the teaching of Jesus, which is being spread by word of mouth and has yet to be written down? Perhaps. But if this is so, why doesn't Paul say so? It is hard to imagine that Paul was unaware of the teachings of Jesus, because he spoke with the former disciples of Jesus who were the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.  But Paul bases his preaching on his experience of the risen Christ, rather than on reports of the ministry of Jesus. For Paul, the future of the church within the Roman Empire lies not with the Jewish teacher and healer from Galilee, but with the risen Christ who offers his living presence to all those with faith.

By the time the gospels were written the Greek-speaking churches were well aware of the teachings of Paul. Perhaps this passage from Paul's letter to the church in Rome was included in the teachings attributed to Jesus by the author of the gospel of Mark. The authors of the gospels of Matthew and Luke, who seem to have used the gospel of Mark in writing their gospels, kept the teaching in their accounts but revised it slightly. In the gospel of Mark a scribe asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, but in the gospel of Matthew the question is put by a Pharisee. This is consistent with the general attack on the Pharisees that is part of the purpose of the gospel of Matthew.

In the version in the gospel of Luke, a lawyer raises the question. Jesus asks the lawyer how he reads the law, and the lawyer provides the teaching that in the other two gospels is put into the mouth of Jesus. Then the lawyer asks for a definition of "neighbor," and Jesus answers by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is a story about loving not only one's neighbor but also one's enemy. This kind of forgiving love, which encourages Jewish and Gentile Christians (including Greeks and Samaritans) to cooperate, is at the heart of the church's witness to the redeeming love of God.

Grace and peace...Bob