Love your neighbour as yourself
People in one church shouldn’t put down people in a different church
In the days of Jesus there were about 3,500 religious rules and laws that had been made from the Ten Commandments.
Jesus was asked of all the rules they had to follow, which one would be the most important to keep?
Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and second, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
I wonder what the world would look like today if everyone tried to keep these two rules? Love God and love people. I also wonder what you would say if I asked you, which one of the two rules do you think would be harder to keep?
Would it be harder for you to love the One true God or would it be harder for you to love all the people in the world?
For me, I think it’s far easier to love God who is filled with love and calls me to be part of His family. I’m His adopted son and He looks at me as the apple of His eye.
When it comes to loving people, it’s a different story.
Our love is often met with rejection, abuse, hatred, bitterness, envy, gossipers and being prejudged as somehow evil. I’m not saying these attitudes are just in an upside-down world but many of these things are found right in the holy house of God among holy people.
It’s wrong for one church person to be putting down good people in another church because they don’t exactly believe everything that they believe. The truth is you would be hard pressed to find two people in any church that agree about everything.
It seems in our search to discover our own identity to fit into the social rat race of life, we judge others. We can declare that one religion is better than another or one nation better than another nation. We can believe that all people were created equal but then act better than or less than someone else.
Jesus’ commission which becomes our mission is to look at everyone and love them as we love ourselves. I believe the answer to this seemingly impossible task is found in us following the First Commandment and loving God.
If you can’t love God who shows you unconditional love then you’ll never be able to really love people who are flawed and marred by the sins of this world.
My next statement will require a light bulb moment — His love for us doesn’t mean that He always agrees with everything we do.
It seems we are challenged when we say we love people that it also means we agree with whatever they are doing. In fact, if we disagree with a choice that they make then they say, “well if you really loved me you would support my decision.”
Your decision to do something wrong may not waver my love for you but I truly can’t agree with you. In the same way when we do something wrong God does not waver in His love for us but He doesn’t support our wrong decision.
Jesus is not saying that our love is measured by how much we agree with everything our neighbour does but He is asking us to love our neighbour in spite of anything dumb our neighbour does.
Jesus is saying that it’s possible for a person to love someone and disagree. I believe in order to become that person you will have to grow up and act mature.
Find a good church to attend, not a perfect church for a perfect church would have to be empty of people. We all have our drama and our need for the Lord Jesus to help us. Join with believers somewhere and seek the Lord together.
God bless you all.