Love And Unconditional Friendliness, Love, And Grace

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Like the Buddha, Christ regards love and unconditional friendliness as fundamental human ethics. The central notion of love and unconditional friendliness is both implicit and explicit in the Christian Bible and in the life of Jesus. Jesus explains that love is God and God is love; therefore, everything that God creates—humans, nature, animals, etc.—is love . In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches the principle of the Golden Rule, in which he discusses the importance of love through unconditional friendliness. Matthew 7:12 describes this principle as “is everything, do to other what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” . In other words, this quote shows that though Jesus knew human’s hearts are selfish, so he provides humans with a standard in which people can gauge their actions: actively treat others the way they themselves would want to be treated. …show more content…

Without love or unconditional friendliness, one may argue that humans would not be willing or able to follow Jesus’ Golden Rule. In addition, unlike the Buddha who is a human, Jesus explains that God has the ability, through his grace, to forgive sinful humanity—an act of love. Consequently, similarly to Buddhist followers, Jesus teaches that a Christian’s deeds are best recognized rather than his or her statements of faith . Overall, both the Buddha’s and Christ’s teachings on the ethic of love and unconditional friendliness teach people extend their love and friendliness to others, including their enemies, in order to focus on their journey of becoming less sinful and more loving people through their

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