In part 1 of this series of 4 posts, I raised the following question: "Is it possible that our current presentation of Christianity as demonstrated through the lives of individual Christians and even some churches has little resemblance to what Jesus taught as being a true follower or disciple of His?" I went on to emphasize three primary commands or instructions that should be primary in our lives. Last week I wrote about the one Jesus said is the first or greatest commandment which is to love God with all of our being.
This week we come to the commandment that Jesus said was second and like the first:
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
This was not a new thought. Jesus was quoting from the Old Testament passage in Leviticus 19:18. As a child, I thought this meant only to love Mr. and Mrs. Cobb and Mr. and Mrs. Hosapple since these were the two couples who liived in the houses on the sides of ours. Maybe that is what the person also thought who had originally asked Jesus about the greatest commandment. He asked, after Jesus had said that loving your neighbor was the second greatest - "who is my neighbor." We know that Jesus then told him the account that we refer to as the Good Samaritan. In summary, a Samaritan who would have been less than friendly with a man from Israel, found the man greatly injured beside the road. He stopped, gave first aid, took the man to a safe location, and paid for his care. The point was made that our neighbors are all of the people God has created.
With that in mind, my opinion is that of the three primary commandments of loving God, loving people, and telling others about Jesus, this is the one that the world notices as our biggest failure. It may not be our greatest failure, but I believe it is the most noticeable. It is with this commandment that we move to secondary activities because we just can't seem to love all of our world's neighbors.
As a teenager in church, I often heard the phrase - hate the sin but love the sinner. That sounds good to the ear and even looks doable in print. But in reality it becomes more difficult than we wish to admit. Let me use as an example of a current major issue that has a great division among people in our own country. The issue is abortion. Many Christians (including myself) believe abortion is wrong and is a sin because of believing that life begins at conception. I would agree with that statement and go on to say that I hate abortion (I hate the sin). Now, let's face the difficulty that it presents. For most, if not all people, it is extremely hard for us to not equate the sin with the person. Some people would even go so far as to become violent toward those who perform abortions and to the persons who receive them.
In this same scenario, what would be the way that we would display love for the person who performs or has had an abortion? When Jesus was confronted by the crowd who brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Him, He dismissed the crowd and told her to go her way and sin no more. He demonstrated love while also pointing her to a better way. Couldn't we provide encouragement, perhaps counseling, meet other physical needs, and demonstrate true love while pointing to a better way to those whose lives have been so affected by abortion or any other sin you wish to substitute (terrorism, mass shootings, stealing, lying, murder, etc.). These two paragraphs run the risk of chasing you to secondary things rather than the primary. Secondary would be to focus on the political aspects and legal aspects of abortion while ignoring the instruction to love as Jesus loved. My intent is only to use an illustration of how easy it is to lose sight of loving people regardless of what has been present in their lives.
The world may not know how to tell if we are failing to love God with all of our being but everything else flows from that one great commandment. If we fail to love God, we probably will fail to love others and also fail to tell others about the great love of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ. The world may not know how to tell if we are sharing Jesus with others as Jesus Himself instructed us to do. But the world is able to tell whether we are a people of love and compassion or a people of hate and discrimination. It is in this final observation that the world posts its review of the positive worth or the negative lack of value they see in Christians, Christianity, and the church.
As we go about our normal activities this week, will others take note of our compassion, kindness, and openness to all people or will they be put off by our hatred and discrimination? We are all responsible for our actions. May our love for God flow through our lives and be extended to all the neighbors - both next door and those around the world.
May the Lord use each of us to truly let others see the difference He makes in our lives.
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