Let's take a look at the second of the great commandments, love of neighbor.
Matthew 22:39-40 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
The second great commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now that’s a tall order. Think of the corrupt politician, the dirty homeless person, the guy who tried to scam us on a phone call, the woman who slandered our name all over the community, and the war criminal who killed our neighbors across the sea. How difficult is it to love our neighbor, when some of our neighbors may have hurt us very badly.
In politics we often hear of patriotism. It’s a good thing to love our neighbor across our own country. But, we don’t often hear the word jingoism used in church. It’s the dark side of patriotism, whereby we love our country, but hate everyone else. Yet, Jesus put it bluntly, that we are to love even our enemies, because they too are our neighbors.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
Proverbs 25:21-22 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the Lord will reward you.
Proverbs 24:17-20 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Or the Lord will see it and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him. Do not fret because of evildoers Or be envious of the wicked; For there will be no future for the evil man; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Obadiah 1:12-13 “Do not gloat over your brother’s day, The day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day of their destruction; Yes, do not boast In the day of their distress. Do not enter the gate of My people In the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity In the day of their disaster. And do not loot their wealth In the day of their disaster.
Is that difficult for us to grasp? How can we love those who are persecuting our Christian brothers and sisters in other countries? How can we love those who illegally cross our borders? How can we love those born locally who bring drugs and crime to our neighborhoods? It sounds impossible, but Jesus does not give us any opt-out clause. He simply demands it.
Thank God for His mercy, because I don’t know anyone who does this perfectly, or even near perfectly.
