Love thy neighbor

Something to think about. 

Love thy neighbor

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40  (NIV)

The first commandment is about our relationship with God the second is an expression of our relationship with God. We can only fulfill the first command by engaging in the other. If we love God as we are commanded we will be compelled to share him with others.  

Loving our neighbor is at the core of what God does and is. God is love and if we understand who God is then we can understand that the heart of God is love. By loving our neighbor we are an extension of who God is. It brings us to our primary purpose. It really brings us to our only purpose.  

But how do we show love? In the story of the good Samaritan, we are instructed to care for our neighbor in physical ways. But is that the only way we are to express love for our neighbor. We express love to our neighbor in everything we do. In our business in our actions in our conversations. Loving our neighbor is manifested in our daily living.   

Are we living every day doing the best we can in everything we do? Thereby glorifying God by our actions. Are our actions showing our neighbor Christ? Loving our neighbor is not about how we treat them, it is about how God treats them. He sent his son to die for them. Remember John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The motivation for the sacrifice was not punishment for redemption it was love for salvation. 

God gave his best for man. We are expected to give our best to our neighbor. We are to care for our neighbor whenever we can. But more than anything else we are to exemplify Christ in our daily living. This is loving or neighbor. When by our actions people can see us and recognize Christ we are loving our neighbor. Jesus came to do the will of his father. We are to do the same. We are to do the will of our father and his will is that we love because he first loved us.  

God's primary characteristic is love. Not judgment or commendation. We need to invest all of us in love. In loving God then loving our neighbor. Love has a lot of faces but in the end, it is about caring about one another.  To fulfill the greatest commandment we must engage in the second. It is impossible to fulfill the first commandment without fully engaging in the second.

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What Does it Look Like?

Something to think about.

What Does it Look Like?

³⁷ Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.^" Matthew 22:37  

⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 

When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, He answered with this verse.  There is no hidden meaning it is not a parable it is a direct answer to a direct question. What does loving God look like? How do you express your love for God and how is it evident to those around you. Love is not something that is kept in secret. It is something you want to tell everyone about or at least make it evident. 
 
Think of all the ways you express love to your spouse your children, parents, siblings, friends. How do you show love to you God? It occurs to me that our love for God should be evident in the way we live. It is not about other people. Loving your neighbor is important, as the Bible says but loving God is on another level.  

God is the one that created you, gave you life, you exist because he thought you up. He loved you before you love Him. He created you for the singular purpose of loving you. His desire is for you to spend eternity with Him. He wants to care for you, protect you and supply your needs. Whats more He can do all of that.  He only wants to provide you with the best life you can live. Everything that is wonderful and glorious He wants for your life. Everything excellent and blissful is what He wants for you, and He has the capacity to supply it. He is not like us where we want the best for those we love but lack the resources to supply those needs.  

What have you invested to reciprocate that love? What time, effort' money or service have you done or are doing to show God you love Him? If you love Him how do you express it?  We were created to love Him. That is our purpose. In this purpose resides the meaning of your life.  We spend all of our lives looking and desiring to be loved and all the while it has been right there in front of us.  Show God your love for Him, and you will find what you have searched for. It is said that God will meet us at the point of our need, our need is to love God.

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So You Want to be Loved

Something to think about.


So You Want to be Loved


18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  John 15:18-19

This is the conundrum the juxtaposition of Christianity.  We want to be loved in a world that doesn't want to love us, yet we are commanded to love this world. In Mattew 5:44 Jesus said," 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Our need and desire to be loved is a basic need of our lives.

The sad reality is if you look at the world you will see that it is not understanding, intelligence education or intent that is lacking it is love. The world as it is today produces enough food to feed itself, but people are still dying of starvation. There is more than enough wealth around the world to eradicate poverty, but people still live in desperate need. There are medical advances that will benefit humanity, but they don't reach the impoverished of the world. That is not to say there aren't problems we don't have solutions for, but we do have available to us solutions to some of the worlds basic needs. So why don't we employ these solutions? Some people say it is because of capitalistic greed, some say because we are too different, Some believe that those who are impoverished somehow deserve it. Some see it as a problem they are not responsible for. Some see it as a fatalistic reality; they must exist it is a cycle of life.   

All of the reasons or excuses mask the real culprit; it is a lack of love. We love our families and close friends. We in a sense may love our country. But do we love our neighbor? The solutions to the world problems are not going to be resolved by a redistribution of wealth, or further medical advances, or reimagined or newly created ideologies. Not by advances in education or academic achievement. The world's problems can only be alleviated when we really learn to love and care for each other.  When we learn to love one another as Jesus said: "Love your enemy."

In our world"s culture and ingrained mindset love your enemies is not included.  The love of the world does not include your best interest. The love of the world will always be what is best for me at any cost. Because the love of the world is self-centered the solutions to the problems of the world will never be implemented.  For any solution of any of the world's problems, we must first,

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  then, 38  "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:36-40


 

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