Condensed Virtue ~ GregJ

 “ When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find  sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”

 A.J. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner (1928) ch 6.

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Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards was 19 in late 1722 when he began journaling for a year his personal to-do list. Entries include:

     “ 1. Resolved, I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and my own good,…”

   “20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.”

   “37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself; also at the end of every week, month and year.”

   “70. Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak.”

You can read all seventy of Edwards’ resolutions here. A modern language version is here.

I admire Edwards’ desire for excellence but question the mechanism. As a bear of very little brain, I’d probably miss the moment to act while pondering which of my seventy resolutions applied.

Jesus observed of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, “they make strict rules and try to force people to obey them, but they are unwilling to help those who struggle under the weight of their rules.”

The Hebrew Bible offered 613 commands. King David highlighted eleven in Psalm 15. Isaiah 33 identifies six. Two virtues, wisdom and respect for the Almighty, drive the Proverbs.  Micah 6 spotlights three life practices: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Isaiah 56 identifies two life rules: “Preserve justice and do what is right.” Amos 5 compressed the Law into one aspiration given by God: “Seek Me and live!”

Meanwhile, over in Greece, the Stoics and later Plato and Aristotle identified four ethical elements: justice, wisdom, fortitude, and temperance. They considered justice as the virtue that best benefits society. To these Church authorities added faith, hope, and love, for a total of seven “cardinal virtues”.

Elsewhere in a world not-fictional-enough, what is best in life was debated:

Outside Christianity, one finds similar reductions of life principles. The five Confucian Ideals are: Rén (仁) compassion with generosity; Yì (義) honesty with lawfulness; Lǐ  (理) respect in relationships and worship; Zhì (智)  wisdom with knowledge; and Xìn (信) faithful integrity. More links: Buddhist ideals….  Islamic Character…. “The only Hindu value of note is ahimsa (non-violence) and all moral issues can be effectively explored though it.”

In stark contrast to the Barbarian, Greek, Roman, and other proposed virtues, you surely already know that Jesus and his followers repeatedly spotlight one virtue, unselfish love.

It's diabolically indicating that the English language and several other modern languages have lost a single noun and a single verb to name unselfish love. The Greeks had ἀγάπη (pronounced ah-gah-pay). This corresponds to Hebrew אהבה  (pronounced ah-hah-vah). Agape is “the greatest of these” (1 Corinthians 13). Unfortunately, “love” can apply to ice cream or to a romantic interest; to a passing infatuation or to a lifetime of sacrifice. So Christians are apt to say “agape love” rather than the ambiguous “love”.

Jesus prioritized ἀγάπη: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

This can be stated less colorfully:

Love God with everything you have.

The giving of everything is demonstrated in the ensuing story of the Good Samaritan.

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I am a bear with very little brain. My governance consists of two resolutions of two words each.

I start with a less ambiguous form of “love”: kindness. This carries a sense of gentle unselfishness; but fierce kindness exists too.  "Be kind" is too passive for my purposes. English lacks an unambiguous verb form of “kindness”, but that’s easy to fix: “Do kindness.”

As a farm boy, I tried to be kind to abandoned baby birds, forsaken bunnies, injured possums, and exploited turtles. I left many small corpses behind in the process. Thus experience tells me, kindness without discernment is not kindness. So, I add a rule 2. Here are my rules:

1. Do kindness.
2. Get discernment.

There remains the greatest treason, doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Still, discernment should confirm that the feeling of compassion is a logical precedent for sustaining kindness. Gratitude often precedes compassion. Both are more like gifts or traits sparked by observing someone else's kindness. So I take these two as my postulates, and enhance them with appropriate feelings.

In doing discernment I must reflexively, rationally, and most of all humbly recognize my continuing ignorance and need to learn. Per Socrates: “I do not think I know.” Or better, per Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”