The L Word.

Love each other. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love as I have loved. Love, Love, Love. When you read the Gospels and pay close attention, you keep getting this message. Jesus seems to be hitting over and over on what's for him a major and central theme. It appears to be a core issue, the interpretive key for anything else in his teaching that might, in these millennia later, be less clear. Here's your default position: Love.

Now what does that mean? See in others great value and potential. Treasure them as children of God. Care for them. Be committed to their good. In comes the philosopher Kant: Never use others as a mere means to your ends and not also as ends in themselves. The interests of others count. Now the great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber: Relate to others as "I-Thou" and never "I-It." Honor others. Respect them. Allow the positive power that can be transformative of your own life to flow through you toward them. Never hate or despise.

But that's hard. Sure, or we wouldn't have to be commanded so many times. It doesn't mean tolerating evil or accepting falsehood as truth or staying silent in the face of immoral and unethical conduct. It never means giving bad behavior a pass or allowing bullies to do their thing. It means seeking to treat people as who they were intended to be more than who they act like they are. It's something we all need to keep in mind daily.