Karl Holl understood the morality of Jesus as a kind of spontaneous response to situations of need, which would not involve reflection but were of the immediate moment. He understood the Lord to have taught a non-systematic approach to moral actions that approaches what some ‘liberal’ theologians wished to call, later, ‘situation-ethics’. The key element in Christ’s way of living is, according to Holl, a spontaneity born from love.
The following is also from The Distinctive Elements in Christianity (1937), page 22. The emphases are Mockingbird’s.
“From this follows the most splendid feature of the ethic of Jesus, namely the naturalness, the spontaneous character of the action, which He supposes even in things most difficult and self-denying. The Good Samaritan does not pause to reflect: he sees the need and does what his heart bids him to do.”
In other words, the Christian is ‘all heart’!
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