Love Your Neighbor As Yourself Part 1

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

What does this mean?

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.                                                                                      Matthew 7:12

³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
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.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor

                                                                                                            Matthew 22:35-40

Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27 all record this statement.

Jesus stated that the first and most important command was to love God. If we don’t love God above all else, we are incapable of following the second. The second command is to “love our neighbor as ourselves.”  If Jesus, who is God, says that this is the second most important command, then should we not take it seriously?

If we are in agreement on this, then let us look at some other passages that reflect who loves, or does not love their neighbor.

Who is my neighbor?

 ³⁰ Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. ³³ But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ ³⁶ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
³⁷ And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

                                                                                                            Luke 10:30-37

The Jews hated the Samaritans. During the Babylonian captivity, the Jews who remained behind, married peoples outside of the Jewish race. God had forbidden this, and thus when the captives returned from Babylon and Persia, they rejected the Jews who had inter-married. This division was so great, the lawyer could not bring himself to answer the question using the word Samaritan. Instead, he says “He who showed mercy on him.”

This saying of Jesus would have been extremely offensive to any true blooded Jew. How better to show what Jesus meant by loving everyone. We are to love EVERYONE! Regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or background, we are commanded to Love our neighbor. This does not mean we overlook or condone sinful behavior, but we must still love one another. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he said “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)  Jesus was not referring to His disciples here, but those who mocked and ridiculed Him; and you and me.

See Luke 6:27-38 (love your enemies)

Jonah and the Ninevites

¹ Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” ³ But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

                                                                                                               Jonah 1:1-3

¹ But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. ² So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. ³ Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!”
⁴ Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

                                                                                                            Jonah 4:1-4

The Lord had commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach about His coming judgment. Jonah, like all the Jews, hated Nineveh. The Ninevites were notoriously cruel and had oppressed Israel. Jonah wasn’t scared to go, but he knew God’s nature and that He would spare Nineveh if they repented. Jonah’s hatred was so great, that even though he heard God audibly, he still rebelled.

We all know the story of how Jonah was swallowed by the fish, so let’s now move forward to the post revival. The people of Nineveh did repent, and the King led his subjects to repent, even causing the people and animals (Jonah 3:6-9) to fast.

When Jonah saw this great city spared, he wanted to die. Imagine hating a group of people so bad, that you would rather die than to see them come to saving grace. Here, we clearly see that God wants us to love one another, and forgive.

Imagine a modern evangelist preaching a revival, and hoping the people don’t listen. Can we even imagine Billy Graham, after a crusade, seeing thousands come to the Lord, running off and wanting to die?