Jesus’s love is unconditional; it’s self-sacrificing; it’s divine. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus Christ showed the world the type of love we should have towards our “neighbors” and, more importantly, towards God. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle presented his view on self-love as a precondition to loving the others. The purpose of this essay is to identify the love of Jesus and the love promoted by Aristotle as well as the differences between their views.
Jesus Christ loves all men and women regardless of their background, sex, age, race, religion or social status. Jesus’s love is so unconditional that He is willing to sacrifice His life for us. Without a shadow of doubt, there is no greater or more sacrificial love than that of Jesus. In stark contrast, however, human’s love is not only conditional, but also changeable. In the Bible, Jesus taught us that as His followers, we should love all people as well. We shall sacrifice our selfishness for the others. Only if we love the others in the same way Jesus loved us, will there be a type of love that is truly unconditional and selfless. Jesus came to serve the others rather than to be served by others, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
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Since a virtuous person would regard a friend as “another-self”, he would love his friends the way he loves himself (IX 4, 1166a1-3). Aristotle then moved on to distinguish the two types of self-love. On one hand, it is immoral if self-love means assigning yourself “the larger share of money, public honours and bodily pleasures” (IX 8, 1168b16). On the other hand, however, self-love is an entirely proper emotion if he is to “gratifies the most authoritative part of himself” (IX 8, 1168b31). In the latter case, Aristotle argued it is good to be self-loving because “he will both be benefited himself by performing fine actions and also help others” (IX 8,