Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
(Matthew 22:34-40) In this second commandment of Jesus, He said to love your neighbor as yourself, but that is not as easy as it sounds. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to do it. Here’s how:
I. The Great Commandment:
a. The lawyer (scribe) Jesus was speaking to was an interpreter of the Old Testament Law of Moses. He would take the law and make it understandable to the people. He was trained to explain the law and how to keep it. He asked Jesus, “Master, what is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” This is where I focus my will, soul, mind, gifts, and talents. My life is about loving God with all my heart, soul, and mind, knowing Him, understanding Him, and allowing Him to work in me. And, when you put that together, it flows right into the second commandment, which Jesus said is just like the first, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” How deeply I love God is reflected in how I interact with others (1 John 4:20).
II. The Great Conflict:
a. I am to love my neighbor as myself, and here’s where we may have a conflict in our hearts. What if I don’t like myself? Jesus says the measure of how I love my neighbor is proportionate with how I love myself. If I hate myself, it’s okay to hate my neighbor? How do I love others when I don’t love myself? How could I ever keep this command? I have such fear and anxiety when sharing Jesus with people. 1 John 4:18 says, “…he that fears is not made perfect in love.” God is saying, “You are afraid of people because you are not perfected in love.” If God’s love is in me, I should not be afraid to step out of my comfort zone into places where they live to see God meet their needs through me. What is the cause of this fear that keeps me from loving who I am? It’s a deep fear that God sees all our frailties and failings just as we see ourselves. You can’t live there!
III. LIVE!
a. (Ezekiel 16:5-7) God passed by and said unto you, “LIVE!” And, “I have called you to multiply.” Not only ‘live’ but to become someone other than who you once were.” When you placed your faith in God for salvation, He gave you the power to become new in Christ Jesus. God loved you when no one else did and cleansed you when no one else would (Revelation 1:5). He came down, gave His life on a cross, and washed away all the filth in which you and I were born. And then Jesus took the penalty of that sin upon Himself and washed us clean in His Own Blood. 1 John 4:10 says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
IV. LOVE!
a. In Acts 10:9-16, the Apostle Peter fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and a great sheet knit at the four corners being let down to the earth. On it were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air. And a voice said to Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.” God is about to bring the Gentiles (the unclean) into the kingdom of God. And this is also a type of many believers who come to Christ. When you pray, you see this sheet of unclean things in your mind, past memories, uncleanness, guilt, shame, and shortcomings. The Lord is saying don’t call yourself unclean anymore. Don’t look to your failings; look to the One Who cleansed you. Don’t look at yourself; look to the One Who has covered you. One day, He passed by and said, “LIVE!” And you came alive in Christ, and He made you new! Now love the new nature of Christ within you. Love what God is doing in you right now! And you’ll start to realize, “God, you don’t see this person anymore; there is a brand-new creation inside of me, and that is who You’re looking at. Jesus is now living His life in me, making me more like Him every day. I love You! I love who I am. And now I can love my neighbor!”