Today’s devotion is based off of week 2 of Unlikely Heroes: A Teacher (WATCH HERE)
Love your neighbor…
At face value, Jesus’ summary of the second table of the law is simple: Love your neighbor as yourself.
However, this short command that is regularly quoted, like every other passage of Scripture is set in a context that is important to understand.
Love for neighbor flows from total love for the Lord, your God.
Love for your neighbor is not independent of love for the Lord.
To put it this way, one cannot love their neighbor well unless they love the LORD well.
Love for the Lord defines how I love my neighbor and how I love myself for that matter.
In our culture today, “love your neighbor” is often equated with the sentiment, “accept everything your neighbor is doing as OK and don’t speak against it.”
This is not the case.
Just like a parent would be negligent in the love for their child by allowing them to engage in activities that are harmful to their body or soul, so loving our neighbor well shows a genuine concern for the physical and spiritual health, just like we are to have for our own physical and spiritual health.
The Apostle Paul lays out the stark contrast between those things which harm our physical bodies and our soul. To love ourselves and our neighbor well would be to avoid these things ourselves and with truth and love help our neighbor to see the same. He also outlines what happens when love for God takes over our heart and guides our actions. The fruit of the Spirit becomes evident and obvious. These characteristics give great indicators of what it looks like when we are loving both God and neighbor.
Galatians 5:19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshwith its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
To be sure in our culture it is hard to “speak the truth in love” and communicate that danger to body and soul of certain behaviors and lifestyles. Perhaps here’s a simple encouragement to grow in our love for neighbor: Grow in our love for the LORD first, then seek with the wisdom of God’s Spirit and the examples of Jesus our Savior to love our neighbor well.
Apply: Think of a relationship that is challenging you to love right now. What aspect of God’s love for you might help you love that individual better?
Prayer: Lord give me greater depth of appreciation of your love for me so that I may have true love for my neighbor which is guided by your love for me. AMEN.