Love Thy Neighbor

Everyone shows shows love in different ways, but as Christians there is no question we must show, this most excellent virtue to neighbors and enemies and everyone in between. The question is how to does this play out in everyday life. Does love mean we give everyone a Valentines card or roses? No we need to redefine love according to Jesus' definition, and his definition (as evidenced by his actions) of love is desiring God's best for a person. When the woman who was accused of adultery was brought before Jesus in John 8 how did he demonstrate God's love? He not only saved her physical life, but he cared for her spirit in this famous phrase, "Go and sin no more." The question for me is, "Do we love people enough to tell them, go and sin no more?

In our permissive culture it seems that no one wants to stand up for truth, everyone is ok, everyone is a nice and good person. No one these days takes criticism well because in a post modern culture there is no authority save oneself. Yet for Christians our authority is Christ who calls us to obedience and to discipleship through discipline. No one likes discipline but endures it for a time because they trust that it will produce the desired results. No kid wants to give in to the discipline of his parents, but they trust the parents are acting in the kids best interests. Should we think any less of our relationship with Christ. Does God not discipline those He loves? Doesn't He tell us to go and sin no more? Should we not then do that same to the people we love?

I know this seems like a tall order, but imagine the alternative to tell somone you love them and let them destroy their life. How is that love? Too many parents have enables their kids to make bad choice in the name of love, which turned out to be anything but love. In fact it is laziness on the part of parents to correct their children, or ignorance on how to in fact to teach them to live a virtuous life. Parents cannot teach something they don't know. So my hope is that as Christians we can be a voice of love and salvation for our society, a voice that says, Go and sin no more. We need to hear Jesus say it to us each day, and at the right time in a spirit of humility and peace, with respect we should say it to others to save them, and truly demonstrate God's love to them.

One of my seminary professors was fond of defining love this way. "To love someone means that I am unwilling to wallpaper their jail cell for them." What a superb definition of love. We want someones best, we don't want to make them feel good about their addiciton, their oppression, their sinfulness. Hollywood would have you think that love means we all go about our business and not get involved, and not care what other people do. But loving someone demands action, demands involvement. To love our neighbor means that we care about their well being now, and also their eternal salvation.

So my question for you is, "How well do you love?"