Read:
Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:34-40; Galatians 5:13-14; 1 John 4:7-21
Reflect:
The impact of receiving love is to give love. When Jesus declared that the greatest and first commandment is to love the Lord your God (Matthew 22:37), he followed it up with the statement: And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39; cf. Leviticus 19:18). The second command flows naturally from the first. If we truly love our Creator we will also love his creatures. But why is this so?
The roots of love lie in the very nature of God: God is love (1 John 4:8; cf. v 18). John goes on to explain that our loves arise out of God’s prior love for us.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:9-11)
Since we are the beneficiaries of God’s forgiving and redeeming love given through his Son it follows naturally that we should pass that love on to others. Love received results in love given.
Paul states it this way in his letter to the Galatians:
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)
Christ has set us free from sin and its enslaving power so we can serve one another in love. Showing love to others is an expression of our new-found freedom and it fulfills the divine law. People whom Christ has liberated do God’s bidding freely out of love, not compulsion. While our love for God is to flow from every aspect of our entire being, our love for others is to meet the standard of how we love and care for ourselves in every dimension of our personality. So the second command is like a ‘plus’ to the first.
There are many ways in which love for one’s neighbor can be shown. Perhaps a good place to begin is to note again the last six of the ten commandments. This involves respecting and honoring the sanctity of family, human life, marriage, the property and reputation of others, as well as the control of our desires. No doubt, the best example of, and inspiration for, loving one’s neighbor is Jesus who loved us and gave himself up for us.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16)
The meaning of lay down our lives has many practical shapes; one of which involves sharing the world’s goods with those in need, as the next verse states (v 17).
Finally, affirming love for God without a corresponding love for one’s brother turns the confession into a falsehood.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this command-ment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20-21)
The two commands: love God and love your neighbor, are very much alike. They belong together like Siamese twins and cannot be separated without destroying both. So we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19); both God and neighbor.
Respond:
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul highlights the primacy of love and notes its practical qualities, particularly in vv 4-9. He concludes his chapter on love as follows:
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Let us put that love into action: to our gracious God and our many neighbors.