Love They Neighbor
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Love They Neighbor
Love They Neighbor
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark records this teaching from Jesus as a response (from a pharisee) who asked Him
“Which commandment is the most important of all?
Consider this interaction!!
“Jesus, we have all these laws that have been passed down through several generations. Now, since I want to live the best life I can for God, how should I prioritize all these commands? Which would you say are the, “most important of all?”
Spent the last 5 weeks taking a deeper look at the greatest command, today we look at the 2nd greatest.
Jesus was quoting a teaching shared in Leviticus...
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
So one could say that this simply means, “Be a good neighbor.”
You can approach this command on a surface level and say, “You don’t have to be a Christian to do this. It’s actually pretty commonly accepted behavior even among non-believers.” (The “Golden Rule” comes from this command)
But we’ve been given information that tells us we are supposed to go deeper in our understanding and practice.
Look at the beginning of this discourse...
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Loving your neighbor ins’t as yourself is part of our quest to live a life that is marked by Holiness … BECAUSE our creator is HOLY!!!!
This speaks directly to our motivation.
Our motivation is (often times) exactly what separates us from the non-believing world.
Understanding our motivation is going to be key in understanding and keeping this command.
“Be holy because God is holy.”
So we love our neighbor as ourself, not just because we desire good over bad, but because we desire to BE HOLY because God is HOLY.
Some of the following instructions includes things like
not harvesting the grain right up to the edge of the field.
leave some grapes on the vine when you harvest and don’t pick up the ones that fall to the ground.
Love is seen in the positive action we do for others.
that is a crucial part of our lives as Christians...
However, this isn’t the 2nd greatest command just because it encourages us to do positive things for each other.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge...
Calls into judgment the way we treat each other when there
The more we think about the implications, the more we realize this is a tall order.
Notice how it amplifies the command to love God.
Simply “Loving God” might just seem natural.
But throw in … Do not hold a grudge, seek justice if you take God to court.
highlights our DEPENDENCY on God
Love includes the times when it’s hard.
Loving your neighbor means loving imperfect people, even when there is a conflict.
Actually I would say that you should expect there to be conflict.
Why, because people are imperfect, and so are you.
With those imperfect people and in those painful situations, our love is tested.
Within the walls of this church we have imperfect people, so within the walls of this church we will occasionally see conflict.
Thankfully God has given us instruction on how to handle that... LOVE EACH OTHER AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF
That’s not always going to be easy… but that’s our command.
But Jesus took us deeper still...
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Ok this was a pretty steep command when the “neighbor” was a fellow believer....
But now we see Jesus has given clarity to WHO IS OUR NEIGHBOR.
love your neighbor and hate your enemy seems more doable (doesn’t it) after all...
You can expect a fellow believer to share the same values as you.
You can expect a fellow believer to love you back
You can expect a fellow believer to live according to the same moral code as you.
But with our enemies … we aren’t promised ANY OF THAT
YET WE ARE STILL SUPPOSED TO LOVE THEM?!!!!!!
How can this be?
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
There may have been a time where God’s people saw a difference in this man or the next. ( i.e. Jew and Non-Jew)
But that is not the case now, Jesus changed all of that.
The love we show to others is not because of who they are or what they have done, it’s because they (like us) are created in God’s image.
To “Love your neighbor as yourself” is actually a HUGE COMMITMENT of faith.
Regardless of the person or the circumstance, I will seek to love this person simply because of my love for God.
I will seek to see them like God sees them.
In fact we have the most perfect example of this love in action.... Jesus Christ.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Even while we were enemies, God loved us.
He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to save us.
We ought to have that same for for each other.
So… what is your response to that person who wrongs you.
“I’m done with you, I’ll get you back ...”
(or) You matter to God, I’m going to love you in hopes that it will lead a new (or renewed) relationship with God through Jesus Christ.