Part 2: Love Your Neighbor?
HEAT, FUEL, AND OXYGEN
PART - 2
‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)
1. TWO BIG QUESTIONS:
Who is my neighbor? Anyone God brings across my path.
What does it mean to “love our neighbor”? Treat them exactly as we want to be treated.
“The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Romans 13:9-10 (NIV)
“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Galatians 5:14 (NIV)
“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.”
James 2:8 (NIV)
2. HOW WE CAN BE GOOD NEIGHBORS:
(1) A First Responder.
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.”’
Luke 10:36-37(NIV)
- Obstacle: Time.
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.”
Colossians 4:5 (NIV)
(2) A Great Host.
“So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. He bowed low and kissed him. They asked about each other’s welfare and then went into Moses’ tent. Moses told his father-in-law everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and Egypt on behalf of Israel. He also told about all the hardships they had experienced along the way and how the Lord had rescued His people from all their troubles. Jethro was delighted when he heard about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel as He rescued them from the hand of the Egyptians. ‘Praise the Lord,’ Jethro said, ‘for He has rescued you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. Yes, He has rescued Israel from the powerful hand of Egypt! I know now that the Lord is greater than all other gods, because He rescued His people from the oppression of the proud Egyptians.’”
Exodus 18:7-11 (NLT)
- Obstacle: Overthinking.
MY NEXT STEP TODAY IS TO:
Pray and ask God to help me see my interruptions as opportunities to love my neighbor.
Be a first responder to someone God brings across my path.
Practice hospitality by hosting a Pie Social in my home on February 27th - 6:00-7:30 pm.
This week’s Reading Plan and blog/podcast:
YouVersion® Bible App Reading Plan: “How to Neighbor” (10 days).
Blog and podcast: “Three Ways