(July 4, 2016 at 11:10 pm)SteveII Wrote:(July 4, 2016 at 2:40 pm)Irrational Wrote: Because they're often vague and unclear, and don't sufficiently cover everything to do with morals.
I disagree. He summed up the law and the prophets with two commandments: 1) love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and 2) your neighbor as yourself. He explained that everyone was your neighbor. Further instruction and detailed examples were given in the other dozens and dozens of chapters.
Can you give an example of how Jesus' teachings on morality was vague?
He never said everyone was your neighbor. Samaritans were, after all, still literally neighbors to the Jews. And again, this could've been interpreted as not including slaves because slaves were their own group according to these interpreters. Perhaps the lesson is that who you perceive as an enemy may be the one to show you mercy, so show mercy and love to them as well. But furthermore, even if this applied to slaves, it doesn't mean Jesus was moving them to stop owning slaves.
Examples of vague commandments are the ones listed in your quotes. What does it mean in full details to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, in terms of action, and then love your neighbor as yourself? Does it mean "stop owning slaves"? Then why not say so? Does it mean "polygamy is ok or not"? Why not just make it clear if polygamy is strictly not ok? Is pirating Christian movies ok? When does talking about someone in their absence become gossip? Is abortion really wrong? Or is it wrong that we are not loving the women of this world enough to respect their bodily/reproductive rights? Is smoking sinful? etc.
