Can Christianity be summarized in this one line--?

Question

'Just don't harm anyone.'

Seriously, if you think of all those regulations in the Old Testament and all the doctrines set forth by the Catholic church, etc... Doesn't it all just come down to not hurting anyone else? Besides believing in Jesus, of course!

Why not just skip all the strict rules and bells and smells, and sum it up?

All responses welcome (Christian or non-Christian) but please, no vague insults or name-calling!

Answer 1

Shadow Arysa,
"Can Christianity be summarized in this one line--?"
Maybe.

"'Just don't harm anyone.'"
No. Not accurately.

"Seriously, if you think of all those regulations in the Old Testament and all the doctrines set forth by the Catholic church, etc... Doesn't it all just come down to not hurting anyone else? Besides believing in Jesus, of course!"
Here's the thing. I am so glad that you brought this up!

About the regulations and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church;
Don't listen to them. They will have you turned upside down if you aren't already.

Here's the single line that you were looking for;
Trust in God's promises in faith through Jesus Christ.

That's it.

Does that sound incomplete to you? Watch;
If you trust God enough to be saved, you become the cohabitation of the Holy Spirit. That Spirit is the same one who raised Jesus from the dead. He's the same Spirit that is a part of God. If He can raised Jesus from the dead, what can He not do for you?
Nothing.

He can do anything. All of God's promises are fulfilled by God, He says so. So with the Spirit of God in you, you begin to change. You begin the 'life of faith' that we are supposed to be in, and you are 'set apart' or 'out called' from the rest of the world.

So yes, the strict rules are often confused, but Jesus said," Trouble not yourself to be troubled, entrust in God, entrust in me." (That's using the literal words from the Greek.)

The Just shall live by faith.

Now, unless you want a religion, you can have the relationship with God that many enjoy without the "RCC" looking over you shoudler.

It's up to you!

Answer 2

That is a vague beginning, but that is all it is: a vague beginning. Christianity is a way of life expressed through worshipping God in Jesus Christ. This life has been compared, by Jesus, as being part of a vineyard: Jesus is the Taproot and vinestock, we are the branches.

Now, every season of rest involves pruning: cutting off something that grew in the last season! Wouldn't this action seem a lot like "Harm" to somebody who didn't understand what was going on? Therefore, the vague statement-summary would be nullified in a normal Christian life: for God must prune us, and He usually uses other people to do the job. That can really hurt!

Answer 3

No, that's actually closer to the Wiccan religion than to Christianity. The Wiccans follow the Rede that says something like "do what you will but harm none". They believe that everything comes back threefold, good or evil.

Christianity is about Jesus. A lot of people would say that this line sums up Christianity.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Answer 4

No, I don't think that it can. I think that the Bible is pretty clear that the central thing is to have faith in Jesus Christ, so any one-line summary of Christianity would have to be about that.

After that, if you're going to try to summarize Christian morality, I think that you have to talk about all of those little details. I don't see "just don't harm anyone" as very near the center of that morality.

Now, be aware that I don't believe any of this. Jesus died something like 2000 years ago, and was just a person. I think that morality has to be based on something far more solid than gods and the like.

Answer 5

Christianity is an historic religion and a wonderful expression of the human desire to meet the divine, especially in the person of Jesus of Nazareth whom Christians believe to be G-d made man. All religion, like fine art or literature defies simple definitions because it is the yearning of thousands of individual yet complex human beings reaching towards holiness. Christians believe that in Christ, G-d reached out to the world and if true, then this has a number of complicated theological implications. It does not merely mean that people have to be 'good' but rather find the sacred in humanity, as the Master of the Universe hallowed the fragile human frame by electing to become human. I do not believe this theology myself, but I can still see the wonderful beauty innate to Christian thinking. An incarnate G-d, and an hallowed humanity surely defies any "one line" attempt to place it in a box? Shalom.

Answer 6

Bro, you said you experienced Christianity first-hand? Christianity is not following a religion or ritual... it's accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and folllowing His teachings. When you do this, you give your life up to God - see truth, see life... and of course it's normal to question, think, analyze, - you don't go into faith blindly - but I also have a question for you... if you truly knew/know God - Because that's what it's all about: Having a relationship with Him. +Part of following Him is trusting Him. Knowing that He will never let us fall and that He never fails. He's the truth that never fails... I'm not trying to be rude at all, and i apologize if it comes off that way!! ADDITIONAL When we follow His teachings we follow HIM, not the "church" or the preists or whoever "imporatant" people are in religion. We're following JESUS, not the pope or anyone else... So if religion is a way of controling people, so be it. Jesus is not a religion is He? He is love. He didn't teach religion, He taught love. Jesus is not a religion or a ritual, and He in no way is trying to control us. He's saveedd us.

Answer 7

Feed my sheep. "Just don't harm anyone" could sum up some other very noble religions, but true Christianity (in theory) (should be) about feeding people who don't have food, getting clothes to people who don't have clothes, finding a place to sleep for the homeless, and so forth. Feed my sheep. Oh Lord, where were you that we could have fed or clothed you? Even as you do unto the least of these (poor people) so also have you done unto me. See, it can't be summed up in "don't do something." It has to be summed up in "do something." Oh yeah, and believe this: that "something" has nothing to do with arguing about whose church is better, bigger, faster, smarter, and who can be more religious or who can quote more scripture, or who knows all the Christian music artists, or who can pose the best. And "something" really isn't about harming other people - so you got part of it.

Answer 8

Simply because some people's ideas of not harming anyone are different from other's.
To many people want to make up their own moral code- if they think, and can convince themselves that what they are doing is harming no one else, then they can justify their wrong actions. We often look at the right now and don't realize how our actions can be harmful in the long run.
The reasons for the perfect instruction of God go a lot deeper than that but I will stick to addressing your specific question.

Answer 9

I disagree wholeheartedly.
Christianity cannot be just "do no harm." Christians must be actively and passionately angaged in doing good: loving one's neighbor, working for justice and fighting oppression. "Doing no harm" gives anyone an excuse to be passive: when I do not act, I cannot be harming anyone. But we must act; Jesus says as much. What we do is important, for what we do reflects our own understanding of God. Doing means risking. Sometimes, the good we try to do ends up being harmful. That's a risk we take as Christians and, when we cause harm to others, we ask for forgiveness and when we are harmed, we forgive those who harmed us.
The important thing is that we MUST act; we cannot remain on the sidelines because we are afraid of doing harm. Any Christian who believes this either hasn't thought his or her faith completely or believes in another faith that's not Christianity.

Answer 10

All religion boils down to the golden rule. Literally every single religion has a version of it. Only Buddhism and Satanism have versions that differ from 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'.

Buddhism phrases it in the negative, "Do not do to others what you would not want done to you."

Satanism phrases it in the recompense, "Do unto others as they do unto you."

Everyone with a religion will say there's something more important than this, but no, not morally.

Your question though, is "Can Christianity be summed this way?"

The answer is no. Christianity, as written in the Bible, is a religion of a hatefilled and spiteful god. He demands blood sacrifice and the only sacrifice good enough for him once he got tired of animal blood was the blood of his own son and self.

Some 'loving god', huh?

The one phrase that summarizes Christianity is:

"Yeshua Nazaroth, Rex Judorum." (INRI, meaning, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews"). The implication of messianic nature flows from this.