Faith and Acts of Charity
Senior 4 · General and Religious Studies
Faith and Acts of Charity
Lesson 4 of 4
40 min
Jewish tradition counts 613 commandments in the Torah (Unit 10). One day an expert in the law tested Jesus: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" (Matthew 22:36). His answer reduced the whole law to two sentences, both taken from the Torah itself. A generation earlier, the Jewish teacher Hillel had been asked to teach the whole Torah while his questioner stood on one foot, and he too answered in one sentence.
This final lesson brings the unit together. Faith (Lesson 1) and charity (Lesson 2) are joined (Lesson 3) in one identity: a believer is recognised by love of God and love of neighbour. The Golden Rule turns that love into a test that every person can apply.
Definition
The greatest commandment: in Jesus' teaching, the command to love God with one's whole being, joined to the second: to love one's neighbour as oneself.
Neighbour: in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, not only a person of one's own group, but anyone in need whom one is able to help.
Golden Rule: the principle of treating others as you would want to be treated. Positive form: do to others what you want done to you. Negative form: do not do to others what you would not want done to you.
Reciprocity: acting towards others in the way you would want them to act towards you.
Identity of a believer: the marks by which a person of faith is recognised, in Jesus' words, "if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).
Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37–40)
Both sentences come from the Torah: the first from the Shema, "You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5), the second from Leviticus 19:18, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh." Notice that Leviticus places the command next to "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge".
When another lawyer asked "Who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29), Jesus told of a Samaritan, a member of a despised group, who cared for a wounded traveller whom a priest and a Levite had passed by. He ended by asking which of the three "seemed to be a neighbor", and the answer was "He who showed mercy on him." "Go and do likewise," Jesus said (10:36–37). A neighbour is defined by need and mercy, not by tribe or religion.
The two loves cannot be separated: "If a man says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1 John 4:20).
The Qur'an joins worship of God and kindness to people in one verse: "And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. (Show) kindness unto parents, and unto near kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and unto the neighbour who is of kin (unto you) and the neighbour who is not of kin, and the fellow-traveller and the wayfarer" (Surah 4:36, Pickthall). A well-known hadith makes love of others a test of faith: "None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself."
| Tradition | Saying | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity (Matthew 7:12) | "Whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets." | Positive |
| Judaism (Hillel, Talmud, Shabbat 31a) | "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." | Negative |
| Islam (hadith) | "None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." | Positive |
| Confucianism (Analects XV, 23) | "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." | Negative |
The negative form forbids harm: it is a minimum that anyone can keep by holding back. The positive form demands action: it is never finished, because there is always more good one would want done to oneself. Some thinkers add a refinement: since people's needs differ, ask what the other person truly needs, not only what you would like.
Worked example: testing a decision with the Golden Rule
Illustrative case. In an exam, Kalisa sees that his friend has left his answer sheet visible. He could copy it.
The rule turns faith into a concrete decision in one step: change places with the other person.
Warning
Common mistakes
Important
Discuss. Rwanda's history shows what happens when people stop seeing others as neighbours. How could the parable of the Good Samaritan and Surah 4:36 ("the neighbour who is not of kin") guide young Rwandans in building unity today? Give one practical action at school and one in the community.
Faith Counts: "The Golden Rule is something we can all agree on", about 2 minutes. List the faith traditions that appear, and say whether each version is positive or negative.
Practice
Key points
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the opening, Figure 4, the tables, the worked example and the exercises.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each saying to its tradition.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
