LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF

PROCLAMATION

“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 you 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.”  Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)

EXPLANATION
These words are from the gospel, the good news regarding Jesus, The Christ, which were spoken by Christ according to the Apostle Matthew.  Jesus continued to speak to the people in parables, telling them the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. (Matthew 22:1-14)  Then the Pharisees tried to trap Him with words, but He silenced them as He spoke regarding paying tax to Caesar. (Matthew 22:15-22)  The Sadducees also tried to trip Him up with words and He answered them regarding marriage at the Resurrection. (Matthew 22:23-33)  One of the Pharisees then asked Him which was the greatest commandment in the law.   

APPLICATION

The Lord God should be paramount in our lives and we should love Him with all that we are. (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27)  We are also to love and treat our fellow man as we would love and treat ourselves.  This “love” is the basis for “The Golden Rule,” “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” (Luke 6:31)  Christ wants us to love everybody, including our neighbors, one another (John 13:35), and our enemies. (Matthew 5:44)  We should love people because God is love. (1 John 4:8)  God dwells within us and His love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)  Love is patient and kind, it always protects and preserves, it is trusting and hopeful, it does not envy or dishonor, it is not selfish or disrespectful, it bears all things, and endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)  We are commanded to love one another. (John 15:17)

LOVE

Proclamation:

“…  But do not have love, I am nothing … Love is patient, love is kind … it does not envy … boast … dishonor others … it is not self-seeking … it keeps no record of wrongs … It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written by the apostle Paul, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, to the believers in the church at Corinth.  In this chapter Paul wrote to them concerning love.  He began by saying that without love, the most eloquent of words is just noise. (1 Corinthians 13:1)  He said that even if he had the gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and faith, without love he was nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)  Even if he gave all that he had to the poor, without love it does him no good. (1 Corinthians 13:3)  Then he goes on to describe love by saying what it is and what it is not.  Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)  He ends by saying that with respect to the three most important things in the life of a believer, faith, hope, and love, that the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Applications:

It is difficult to define “love” and the definition in the dictionary leaves a lot to be desired.  Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines love as a “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties”.  It also gives eight other definitions, all of which relate to feelings.  Here, Paul provides us with displays of love and descriptions of what love is and isn’t, and what love does and doesn’t do.  Love is all-consuming and involves the heart, (1 Corinthians 13:1) the mind, (1 Corinthians 13:2) and the will. (1 Corinthians 13:3)  Love is the fruit of The Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22)  This love is the agape kind of love, not the brotherly love, phileo, or the passion lustful eros type of love.  It is the divine love, the love of God.  Without the love of God our gifts and talents are worthless.  The love of God is perfected within us as we keep and obey His Holy Word. (1 John 2:5)  God is love, and whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God lives within them. (1 John 4:16)  As believers, we are commanded to love one another. (John 13:34-35)

WE NEED TO LOVE MORE

Proclamation:

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another."  John 13:34-35 (NIV)

Explanation:

These are the words of Jesus, The Christ, as He spoke to His disciples, as recorded by the Apostle John, the disciple who referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.  Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another.  He said that the world would know that they were His disciples by the way they spoke to, treated, and behaved with one another.

Application:

As believers we have hope, and we have faith, but what we need is more love.  We do not need more love from God, He has already proven His love for us. (John 3:16 and Romans 5:8)  We need to love each other more than we do.  We need to demonstrate our love for one another more often.  We need to perform more random acts of kindness towards others, without expecting to receive anything in return. (Luke 14:13-14)  God is love. (1 John 4:8 and 4:16)  Since God dwells within us, we should exhibit His love in our actions towards others.  The world needs more love, and it should begin with those of us who believe.  We must act Christ-like and demonstrate examples to the world regarding how they should behave.  In the end, we will be judged first, judged on how well we followed The Lord's commands.  Judgment will begin with those of us in The Church. (1 Peter 4:17)  Let us live up to our titles, “Christian”, “Believer”, “Child of God”, and let us demonstrate a Christ-like love for one another.  The world needs more love and we are the agents of love.

LET'S DEMONSTRATE GOD'S PERFECT LOVE

Proclamation:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God ... Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins ... since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ... but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us ... If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is The Son of God, God lives in him and he in God ... God is love ... There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear ... If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."  1 John 4:7-21 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Apostle John.  Here John offers a description of what perfect love, Godly love, is and tells how we can achieve it and demonstrate it.  The Spirit of God within us imparts to us the will to love each other.  This is how love is mad complete among us so that we will have the confidence to say that we are like Christ. (1 John 4:17)

Application:
God loves us and He has proven it.  If we love God, we will love our fellow man because God is love and God is within us.  We cannot love God and hate one another.  We should pray that God will help us to love each other.  We must learn to demonstrate the love of God in our daily interactions with our fellow man.  By our doing this, the world will know that we are believers in Christ. (John 13:35)  By performing random acts of kindness for one another, and for non-believers, we demonstrate the love of God that is within us.  Love in not just a spoken emption, it requires action in order to be manifested.

I LOVE YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU

To all of my family and friends, colleagues and co-workers and classmates, associates and acquaintances, preachers and teachers, I just wanted you to know that I love you, each and every one of you, and I pray that The Good Lord will bless you today and continue to bless you.

Today is a special day, and every day is a special day because The Lord God made each one of them.  I will rejoice and be glad in it and I pray that you will also.  While we celebrate and appreciate this glorious Lord’s Day let us say a kind word to someone and encourage them.  Today is a good day for us to do random acts of kindness and demonstrate the love of God.  Let’s not wait until their “Homegoing Celebration” to say something good about someone.  Let the people in your life know that you love them, tell them and show them, while they can appreciate it.

I love you and may God bless you.

Rev Wendell

LOVE IS GIVING NOT RECEIVING

Proclamation:

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words The Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"  Acts 20:35 (NIV)

Explanation:

Luke, the careful researcher and accurate historian who was a traveling companion and the personal physician of the Apostle Paul, recorded here the words of Paul as he spoke and quoted The Lord Jesus.  Paul's point was that he did not preach and teach for money, he worked to provide for himself, and to use his earnings to help support the poor.  He also encouraged the people to do likewise, because as Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Application

All too often today people are selfishly concerned with what they will receive, and care very little about giving to help others.  This attitude also pervades many of our personal relationships.  We often say that we love our friends, but we are more concerned with what we can get from them, or what they can do for us.  We use our friends for our personal benefit, we don't love them.  That is not Christ-like behavior.  Jesus was a giving person, and He taught that it was better to give than it was to receive.  He loved His friends, He shared information with them (Matthew 5:1-2), He shared food with them (Matthew 14:19-21), and He was willing to give up His life for them. (John 15:13-14)  His love was, and still is more concerned with others than with Himself.  Love is kind and it is not self-serving. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)  Love is giving and not concerned about receiving.  God is love. (1 John 4:8 and 4:16)  It is better, and more Christ-like, to give to others than it is to receive from them.   

How Do We Know That We Are Saved

"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death."  1 John 3:14 (NIV)

The Apostle John, who referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, here in this verse provided the answer to the question, "How do we know that we are saved?"  Under Divine inspiration his answer was, we know that we are saved because we love our brothers.  Those who do not love their fellowman are still lost in sin.

God is love, and he who does not love is not of God. (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:20)  If we love one another, then we are in God and God is in us. (1 John 4:12 and 1 John 4:16)  Jesus, The Christ, taught us that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. (Mark 12:31)  If The Holy Spirit of God is within us, then we will exhibit evidence of the fruit of The Spirit, part of which is love. (Galatians 5:22-23)  When we display the love of God in our behavior, then we know that we are saved.  Death is the separation from God.  Those who live in the darkness of spiritual death, live a life which is dominated by hate, and not by love, because they have not accepted Christ. (John 3:36)  Therefore, they have not been born into the light of life with Christ.  Salvation is only available to those who believe. (John 3:16 and Romans 10:9)