Love Thy Neighbor
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18b NKJV.)
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13 NKJV.)
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20 NKJV.)
The test of loving like Christ is not loving Jesus. It’s loving Judas. (Anonymous meme.)
So, I’ve identified who is “my neighbor.” And I’ve looked into defining “love.” Now comes the hard part; how do I apply that definition to those I’ve identified? Just how do I “love my neighbor?” How do we “love” our neighbor? Is the happiness and well-being of our neighbor, our fellow man, as important or more important, to us than our own?
When the wealthy young man asked Jesus what good thing should he do to have eternal life, Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). The young man walked away in sorrow, we’re told, “for he had great possessions” (Matthew19:22). Loving his neighbor was just too expensive.
How often do we pay lip-service to “loving” our fellow men, when what we really mean is “we love those fellow men who deserve to be loved.” In early Victorian England, poverty was rampant. There were numerous “charities” whose stated intention was to aid the “deserving poor.” The problem was how to determine the “deserving poor” from the supposedly “undeserving poor.” (Most of Charles Dickens’ novels examined this problem, especially in Oliver Twist [1838], A Christmas Carol [1843], and Hard Times [1854].) And it remains a problem today, in the 21st Century.
Does God love only those who “deserve to be loved?” And if so, who among us deserves God’s love? Could any one of us measure up? Apparently not. Paul writes to the Romans, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). None of us “deserve” God’s love. But Paul goes on to say “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
While we were yet sinners. Every time I read or hear that, I pause. While we were yet sinners. It makes me think that what I “deserved” was Justice. But what I “received” was Mercy. Through the cross, through a love that cannot be measured, mercy was bestowed on a world that had turned its back on its bestower. It was given, freely and voluntarily, while we were yet sinners.
When I think of that love, loving my neighbor seems very little to ask of me. Smiling at a stranger costs nothing. A kind word doesn’t cost a penny. Listening to someone who is hurting may ease their pain. Remembering that what I deserved was justice but what I received was mercy makes me a little less judgmental, a little less critical, a little more generous, and maybe a little more worthy to bear the privilege of loving my neighbor.
Simply because One loved me while I was yet a sinner.
Rejoice always,
Jerry Lipscomb
