The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31 (NLT)
LOVE SERIES – PART 2
Jesus narrowed down all the laws, and regulations of Christian living to two things. One might think that these two things have to do with rules, behaviours, actions, the letter of the law… ‘if you just do A and B, you’ll be considered an ‘Amazing Christian!’ (whatever that is). But rather, Jesus brought it all down to LOVE. Relationship with God, and then relationship with others.
Community.
The way people should be able to identify us as Christians is not by our perfect ‘white picket fence’, rule-abiding lives, but by our raw and unshakable love for our neighbour and humanity. It’s a love that covers a multitude of sins; that embraces and encourages, inspires and comforts.
Instead of striving for perfection, open your heart up to love God and love others… Instead of working hard at being right and doing ‘right,' put everything you’ve got into kindness, compassion, hope, peace… LOVE. Then let this spill out into those around you.
It’s this kind of love that people will only experience at the hand of God and His hand at work in our lives towards others.
It can be easy to focus on people’s actions and behaviours – to narrow living down to set of practical rules and judgments. Black and white living. But the more I experience, and the more I understand God’s love towards me, life becomes less black and white and more grey. The only thing I should live by is love. For myself and for others.
I sometimes find myself focusing in on peoples actions and judging them by them… Accepting them or passing them off… Come on, we all do it. And of course we need to be wise about who hang around and who we let influence our lives, but isn’t it wisdom to allow the love of God to flow out of us and into those we come across daily? Is this not our calling? The second greatest commandment? Not withholding our acceptance, but generously giving a smile, some help, a kind word… Showing and being LOVE in a world full of hatred, comparison and rejection.
Love your neighbour… it's what cuts through noise of this world and brings the hope of Christ to those who are devoid of it.