LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF

Love is an emotion that comes naturally to human beings. It is one of the virtues of God, that is bestowed upon us, and wired into our nature, when God created us, in His image. However, the corruption that has crept in, because of our rebellion, and the fall, has contaminated our capacity to love as God does, and our sin has turned it into, selfishness and greed at its worst. Man still loves, but it is not what it was meant to be, originally. We lost much more than a beautiful garden, when we sinned. 

Let us continue to read the passage on the Pharisee’s question on, the first and the greatest commandment. Let us read from Matthew 22:34-40, which is also found in Mark 12:28–34; and Luke 10:25–28.
– “34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 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 neighbour as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:34-40

The Pharisee asked for the greatest of all commandments, and Jesus gives him two. Pharisee was trying to catch Jesus in some fault, in His approach to the law. Jesus was expanding his question, to make it more wholistic, comprehensive; and give a glimpse of God’s perspective on love, law and the human conduct. The reason for God to do so, is because of the hardness of the Jewish hearts, and their efforts to do what they pleased, ‘without breaking’ the law.
– “The Rabbins reckoned up 613 commandments of the law; and distinguished them into the greater and the lesser. These later they thought might be neglected or violated with little or no guilt.” – John Trapp
That is why the Pharisee asked only the first and the greatest commandment. Jesus, who is the very Word of God, exposed their duplicity, and their dubious hearts.

There are three things that Jesus speaks clearly, and it dismantles and destroys the very core of the “Jewish” religious thought and practice, as proposed and practiced by the religious leaders. The Jewish religious leaders got the first one right. It was obvious from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. That is what they were expecting too. 

Jesus, being the God who gave to the Jews, the law, takes this opportunity, to enlighten them, open the eyes and ears of the blind and deaf religious leaders, and their faithful ones, who are equally blind and deaf followers. Jesus goes on give them a glimpse into the heart of God, His desire when He gave the law, and the whole intention behind it; and His love for people – not just the “chosen” ones, but the whole world – John 3:16.

Then Jesus connects the first great commandment to the second, which the religious heads, and their teachers, did not…
– “39…You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus then says something profoundly enlightening – He not only links the two commandments, but says, “…On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus doesn’t end it there, When the Pharisee asks Jesus “Who is my neighbour?” as if rubbing salt into the wound, Jesus makes the much hated Samaritan – the much hated despicable ones – as the hero on the parable, and the villain being the religious Jews – Luke 10;25-37. 

What a contrast to bring the truth into light – Samaritan, the despicable neighbour is the hero, and the “chosen” Jew the villain. The hate for the neighbours hasn’t changed much, in the two thousand years, since the parable. Sadly, the Church has jumped into bed with such hatred and bigotry for the neighbours. Woe to us, who claim to follow the LORD, who taught us from the Old Testament times, to love the neighbour as ourself.

Jesus was ramming the truth down their throats, saying, “LOVE your NEIGHBOUR as YOURSELF” Whatever love that we have for ourselves; whatever kind of love we want for ourselves; the exact same kind of love, needs to be demonstrated towards our neighbour, by US.

Even if our neighbour is a Samaritan or others who don’t belong to us, and our tiny little “chosen” group, and even if they are blacks, browns, yellows, the slaves, the lesser caste ones, the people who speak other languages, and not ours, people from other regions than ours, the “Russians”, the “Chinese”, the “Iranians”, the “Palestinians”, and so many “OTHERS” – we are to love them with the same love, as we want to love ourselves with. Love is SEEN in “JUSTICE” “EQUALITY” and “FAIRNESS” that we show, in all our dealings, with our “neighbour”. This is what it is, to truly and honestly love, our neighbour. Such a love that we demonstrate, for our neighbour, is an indication of our love for our God. 

– “God’s moral expectation of man can be briefly and powerfully said in these two sentences. If the life of God is real [and true] in our life, it will show by the presence of this love for God and others.” – [Enduring Word Commentary]

Let us not fool ourselves, just like the Pharisees, and the religious bigots of Jesus’ day. Surely, we very well remember, what Jesus had called them, don’t we? brood of vipers and whitewashed tombs – Matthew 23:1-36. Let us learn to love our neighbour, just as Jesus our LORD had done, and had commanded us to. Let not prejudice, nor our bias, not hate, be the basis for our conduct, and our dealings with our neighbours. Let us not be a “smart” fool like the Pharisee to ask, “Who is my neighbour?” Instead, let us faithfully and obediently learn to love the LORD with all our heart, soul and spirit, and love our neighbour as ourselves. Even so the LORD help us.