Love...

Jesus taught throughout the gospels to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:38-39, Mark 12:30-31, and Luke 10:27). Then in John 15:12, Jesus reiterates with, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (NIV).” So, love…whether for God, your neighbor or yourself, is a key element that runs throughout all of the gospels. When we look at Paul’s writings, we can see the same theme.

Paul talks about the importance of loving God on several different occasions in his letters, but probably the most beautiful verse comes from 1 Corinthians 2:9 where he says, “…”No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

In Galatians 5:14, Paul says, “The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Whether you are holding a fellow Christian accountable, feeding the poor, caring for children, or anything else; you should do it in love. “The same love and help that we extend to those who are our friends and close relatives we should extend to all those who are in need. Conversely, those who are in need have a claim on our love. We need to consider them as our neighbors… (Ateek).”

Something that is often forgotten about loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is that we do in fact need to love ourselves. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” I think this verse points out that loving our body and treating it with godly respect is important because it is not our own. It is a beautiful creation of God.

Ateek, Naim. " Who Is My Neighbor?." http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.regent.edu/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml;hwwilsonid=UFXA1F1QPBXW1QA3DIMSFGOADUNGIIV0