This commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, is second only to the commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Matthew 22:36-40 and Mark 12:28-34
Notice in the passages in Matthew and Mark referenced above, that these two great commandments “fulfill all of the law and the prophets.” Under the law, a standard was given. The commandment says we are only required to love another person as much as we love ourselves. The “golden rule” follows from this commandment and explains it, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
The law and the prophets are entirely good and loving our neighbor as ourselves is a great way to start loving other people. However, we are under a new covenant and under this new covenant Jesus gave us a new standard – He gave Himself as the standard. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34
Now, that is an entirely different and higher standard! It is an impossible standard for us to achieve apart from the Helper, the Spirit of God.
How we treat each other is extremely important to God, starting with those closest to us, and extending to all people. The clearest statement I can find in the New Testament about how to know that I am loving my “neighbor,” is in 1 John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.” That is exactly the way Jesus loved us. He loved the Father perfectly and did only what the Father wanted Him to do and said only what the Father wanted Him to say – even to the point of dying for us. In just the same way, our love for others starts with and is proven by our love for God and by doing everything He tells us to do.
How does loving God and keeping His commandments assure us that we will love our family, other Christians and all people?
First and foremost, we must remember that God is love and He will always be the only origin and the only source of love. We have the privilege of being vessels used to express God’s love to others, but we will never become the source and origin of love. Our deep and genuine love for God allows us to learn directly from God, the source of love, so that we can know how to love others with His love. Loving with God’s love will always be greater than loving with our own love. This is what enables us to love others as Jesus loved us. Loving God will always include following His words, His deeds and His heart attitude.
Secondly, 1 John 5:2 tells us we will know that we love others by keeping God’s commandments. Three times in John 14, Jesus communicated that, if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. From this chapter, we learn that as we grow in love for God, keeping His commandments will follow, and Jesus’ clearest commandment to us is that we love one another as He loved us.
There is another important spiritual principle to show us how to direct our heart, in love, towards God and people. Jesus said, “…where your treasure is, there will you heart be also,” Luke 12:34. As we “treasure” God and His commandments, by diligently seeking to love Him and obey His commandments, a heart filled with love for God and His commandments will certainly follow. We “treasure” things and people by investing most of our time, energy, talent, our interest or finances into those areas. Our heart and our affection will follow us into whatever we treasure. If we invest most of our time and energy into making money, our heart will love money. If we spend most of our time and energy into considering how to be generous, our heart will love generosity. If we spend most of our time and energy on our career, our heart and our affection will follow us there. If we invest most of our time and energy into our family, our heart and our love will follow us there. However, unless we spend most of our time and energy investing in knowing, loving and obeying God first, even our love for our family will fall short of God’s love for them.
And so, loving God first and obeying Him first above anyone or anything else, will always be the best way to love one another as Jesus loves us and to know that we are loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Father, please give me grace to love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength so I will obey Your commandments and love others as Jesus loves them.
Written by Barry Byrne