1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Matthew 22:34-40
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
Luke 10:25-37
Parable of the Good Samaritan Neighbor
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Matthew 5:43-48
Love Your Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
One would have thought that the religious leaders two thousand years ago, would have a lot of authority and been heavily listened to in their society...But One came among them and seems to have taken their listeners and their crowds away from the experts and religious leaders of the day...This Man taught in a most unusual way, and to crowds, who were seen as the last in society, to frowned upon people like tax collectors, to people who were poor, to people who needed better health -so He healed them, and to not the great -but to the least...This Man helped those who needed help...And He did this out of LOVE...
Jesus taught with such authority, and the words He spoke rustle with this authority...The Sadducees and Pharisees were the religious leaders of His day...They got together and tried to test Him with different questions...One of them among these two groups were an expert in the law, so he wanted to tested Jesus with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"...Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'...This is the first and greatest commandment...And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'...All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."...
We are to love our neighbors and Jesus says our neighbors are those we need to help and to have mercy upon...I wonder how well Jesus' message and teachings resonated with His listeners as He told them to help others, who needed help...But we are to go further than just loving our neighbors who need mercy and help...
And while He was teaching another time Jesus said you have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor hate your enemy.’...But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven...He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?...Are not even the tax collectors doing that?...And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?...Do not even pagans do that?...Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect...
To crowds He taught His message was a radical one... To those who read His message today, this Teacher continues to herald His same radical message of His time...Loving your neighbor and those who need help is a teaching that runs counter to most cultural norms...How can we go even further and love our enemy?...His loving your enemy message from Sermon on the Mount is something that cannot be explained...His Sermon on the Mount remains a most controversial teaching when the world and we try to implement it, even after two thousand years...
How can we learn and even begin to love our enemies?...Jesus is no mere Man...The nature of His teachings are quite unusual and maybe even mysterious...But the unusual-ness of His message and His mystery somehow meets the wants of mankind... And Jesus teachings and His followers know that what He teaches is based in the Greatest Commandment, which is LOVE....If we do not believe His teachings of love, what do we have?...We can better see the purpose of life, if we believe these things about love...If we reject His teachings of love, then the world is this unexplainable riddle...But if we believe that He is LOVE and He honestly wants us to love everyone and everybody, the history of mankind can be sufficiently explained...
And if God became Man and came to earth to dwell with us, we might expect somethings to be said and be taught to us, just like these things above, as a matter in due course...