Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HCP Vol XX Special Number

1968 No 2- 63 -(07767)

his fellowm^n, and God’s forgiveness is forfeited bytHe man wh*, does not forgive the trespasses of fyis fellowmen (llatthew 5s23; 13;2l),

d) The Communal Character of Jesus ’ Ethics

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It is a common misconception that Jesus would apply- his ethics of love to personal relations onlye .. Jesus continues and completes the line of the great peophete in that He places the individual and also his people into the context of the whole of human society# According to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the commandment of love is valid in every relationship, irrespective of serious religious and national antagonisms* Neither ie forgiveness a matter only of the inner, spiritual life of man* When he forgives the sins of the man stricken with palsy and heals him, he not only restores tic man-’s relation to* God but also reinstates him as a member of equal value and rights in the community which, because of his sickness, considered him an outcast, a sinner© When he declares in the house of Zacchaeus, this extortioner of his own kin, "This day is salvation come to this house", then he not only declares that this man is reconciled with God, his eternal salvation is assured, but he also says that Zacchaeus has found his way back into the community of his own peoples

In many cases the political dimensions of Jesus’ prophetic message are clearly visible,, When he weeps over Jerusalem because the city’s failure to recognize the things which belonged to its peace, then he was thinking not only of the spiritual peace of the holy city but also of its earthly peace and welfares In his mind, what works for the ruin of Jerusalem is the city’s choice to give its allegiance to a false Messianism instead of following Jesus Christo That Messianism called for rebellion against the Roma power© The condition of peace, according to Jesus, is "to render unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto Cod the things which be God’s"« The interpreters arc right who say that Jesus in this saying gives no theory of the Stateü let neither can we regard his saying as a mere witticism,

Jesus .lays down here the principle that the service of God’s cause does not conflict with one-'s obedience to Caesar,, Who therefore follows Jesus will meet Ms worldly obligations©

e) The Interpretation of Prophecy in Primitive Christianity and in the Pauline Writings

Primitive Christianity holds the common conviction that Jesus Christ is the consummation of Old. Testament prophecy* By having this conviction,'the first Christians do not think that the ministry of prophecy in the church has also come to its end0 In the Acts and in Paul’s epistles we read about prophets, although the substantial content of prophecy was continued primarily by the activity of the apostles* They preached the Gospel