No. It doesn’t just show up from time to time in the New Testament. It is the entirety of the message.
From Matthew (there are other citations, but it is almost impossible to misinterpret this):
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
His messaging was consistent. When a prostitute was about to be pummelled with rocks, he asked who among the rock throwers had not sinned, and he cared for her.
This kind of behavior is at the core of almost every verse in the gospels. It’s even stronger in some of the apocryphal books that are not part of the biblical canon, such as the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene, who was his best friend, but whose message was smashed by patriarchal clergymen and translators).
Where people get led astray are in various interpretations of his teachings, including the Apostle Paul, who, as a human, was flawed, and who was a bit of a sexual prude for his day (people were pretty wild back then).
Jesus didn’t care two whits about sex, not really. But Christian leadership has focused on it in the most hypocritical way imaginable.
But even Paul, who was a bit uptight, wrote some of the most beautiful verses in the Bible on love in Corinthians 13:
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
“ Love never ends.”
So when one says morals differ between societies, that’s not really true.
*Morality* differs, but the moral edict that we should all act with love for one another is a universal truth held by almost all religions. Not so much Christianity, sadly, but that is because the message has been buried by its patriarchal sermons of judgment.
Loving someone doesn’t mean I embrace the guy next door who beats on his wife. It simply means that I pray (or meditate, or whatever turns you on) for grace to enter his life. I don’t need to be friends with everyone. But acting with love towards others is the first step towards happiness in anyone’s affairs. I don’t ask others to believe this. It’s up to each of us to find our way to this truth.
