The Greatest Commandment

“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.” Matthew 22:34-40

Look closely. There are two key things about being a Christian that we are supposed to learn from this verse.

The first is that we give God everything. We don’t hold back. God gets the good, the bad, and the ugly. We love Him until it hurts because that is how He loves us. This is the easier of the two.

The second is neighbor. Jesus does not say love your fellow Christians as yourself. He does not say love your friends as yourself. He says love your neighbor as yourself. This is huge.

Christians today are failing this miserably because we have created a world that is exclusive. We make it seem as though the Grace and Mercy given freely to those who accept it is for us and us alone. But this is not the Truth nor is it what we are called to do.

Instead, Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not exclusive but inclusive and this is hard.

Neighbor does not exclude people who’s lifestyles run contrary to our own. Neighbor does not exclude people who have different opinions than us on things like gay marriage, abortion, and God.

To be perfectly clear, I am not saying we excuse, justify, or ignore. I’m saying we love. We show the people of the world what it means to have a life filled with the Holy Spirit and to have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes we should be vocal and honest about what we believe, but we do not judge. Christians should be able to befriend people from all walks of life, Christian or not because people should want to be around us. They should know that we disagree with them but more importantly they should know that we care.

Because Jesus cares.

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