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For all of us who lived the Christian faith, we have definitely heard the phrase “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.” But what does it really mean to love your neighbor as yourself? Do we truly understand the way Jesus Christ intended? Love Your Neighbor As Yourself is the second great commandment of Jesus. It immediately follows His commandment of loving God with all your heart, mind and soul. Following this commandment is the key Jesus Christ gave us for loving others as God loves us. A Pharisee once tried to test Jesus after asking Him what the greatest of the commandment was. The Pharisee asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Instead of giving a direct answer, Jesus Christ turned the question on the Pharisee by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable of the Good Samaritan tells the story of a man who was attacked by robbers on the road to Jericho. He was stripped of his clothes, beaten, and was left for dead. Soon after, a priest was passing by the same road and when he saw the man, he went to the other side of the road and continued on his way. A Levite then passed by, and he too moved to the other side of the road when he saw the man. But a Samaritan came by and when he saw the man, he took pity on him, poured oil and wine on his wounds, carried him on his donkey and brought him to an inn and took care of him there. The following day he gave the innkeeper two denarii and asked him to look after the man, adding that when he returns, he will compensate the innkeeper for any extra expense he may have. After telling the story Jesus asked the Pharisee which he thought among the three was a neighbor to the man who was robbed to which the Pharisee replied, “The man who showed mercy.” Jesus then told the Pharisee to go and do likewise. “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NKJV).
When Christ was asked what the greatest of all the commandments was, it was not asked in earnest by someone who sincerely wanted to know. Rather, it was asked by someone who considered himself to be an expert in the law of the prophets, who only wanted to test Jesus. And so with Christ’s answer of his great commandments of love, we can truly see His infinite grace and wisdom, as well as God’s infinite mercy which is the key to our salvation. By loving our neighbor as ourselves, Christ has made it impossible for us to fail because we are very good at taking care of ourselves. We want what is best for us and by making our own selves as the benchmark of how we should love others, Christ has shown us how to truly love our neighbor. Another important teaching in loving our neighbor as ourselves is that we realize that we should not wait for when we feel loved before we start to love others. We do not have to wait until we feel that we have a surplus of self-love before we give it away to our neighbors. The commandment made it perfectly clear: love your neighbor exactly as you love yourself. No more and no less. Jesus first teaches us that the greatest of all commandments is to love God with our whole being because God is the foundation of love. It is only by loving God that we truly learn how to love. Right away Christ follows it up with loving your neighbor as yourself because once we put God at the center of our love, we learn how it is to genuinely do the same for our neighbors. “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40 (NKJV).
Loving your neighbor as yourself is found eight times in the Bible. Not once. Not twice. Eight times. Loving your neighbor as yourself is so important to God that He not only repeats Himself, He makes it a command. And not just one in a list of many commands. Jesus coupled the command to love your neighbor as yourself with loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. James calls it the royal law. It sounds beautiful, and it is when we obey it. But loving your neighbor as yourself isn’t always easy. That’s why God made it a command. He knew we’d struggle. Making it a commandment is actually to our benefit. How is that? We have to do it on purpose, be intentional about it. Sometimes even out of our need. You are the object of this love. God loves you. Knowing this is imperative. And not just loved in a general kind of way, but deeply loved and unconditionally loved. We tap into this when we understand that God loved us first. He’s the source of our love. God loved us even before Jesus gave Himself for us. God the Father is the source of all love. Before we can give this love we need to receive it for ourselves. You can’t give what you don’t have. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess [a]that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” 1 John 4:1-6 (NKJV).
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