Love you neighbor as yourself.
There is so much in today's Bible reading that I could comment on it was hard to choose. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. Live by the Spirit. There is enough in one chapter to keep you busy studying for a week.
But I decided to write about Gal. 5:14. "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Jesus said in Matt. 22:37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." These Scriptures are written as commands. That means, "You do this.!!" They aren't just good suggestions.
The Jews had 613 commandments from the Old Testament law. in Psalm 15 David reduces the number to 11; and in Micah 6, Micah reduced them to three (Micah 6:8). In Matt. 22:37 Jesus reduced them to two. Now in Gal. 5:14 Paul reduces the commands to one. He says the entire law is summed up in this single command to love your neighbor as yourself. That makes it pretty important!!
Who is our neighbor and how do we be a good neighbor? In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus answers this question in the parable of the Good Samaritan. It was the Samaritan, a despised person, who was the good neighbor, not the priest or the religious leader. The one who had mercy on the beaten, injured man was the good neighbor. His neighbor was a stranger in need. Basically, everyone is our neighbor; our fellow citizen, mankind.
How do you love your neighbor as yourself? Good question!! For one thing, don't treat other people in a way you, yourself, would not want to be treated. In other words, "Do to others what you would have them do to you." Matt. 7:12. We could probably spend days discussing this but I think it is summed up in basically one word: Love. I Cor. 13 says "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance." New Living Bible.
How do we live out this kind of love? First of all we need to check our love for God. I Jn. 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us. Whoever loves God must also love his brother." Prov. 14:21 says "He who despises his neighbor sins." You can't love your neighbor if you don't love God. I think love for our neighbor is a supernatural love; it is not something that resides in the human spirit apart from God. We basically are selfish creatures. Just watch a group of two and three year olds playing together and you will get a demonstration of what lives in human nature. Mine. I want that. I don't want to share. Give it to me. On and on.
When we have the Holy Spirit living in us he empowers us to produce the fruit of the Spirit listed in verse 23. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. With the Holy Spirit working this kind of fruit in our lives we can truly love our families, love each other, love our neighbor and reach out to those in need and love the unlovely. It's a God thing!!! Go bear some fruit today and show love to your neighbor.
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