Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall 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: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
—Mark 12:29-31
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
—John 14:23
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
—James 2:8-9
Eugene Peterson put John's description of the incarnation in powerful, perhaps unexpected, language: “The Word became flesh and blood / and moved in to the neighborhood.” The immediacy of that image connects it to a theme that we find from one end of Scripture to the other.
"Love your neighbor..." is clearly stated in the Law of Moses.
Some chose to ignore it, regarding "near" as simply meaning "convenient for exploitation". Events in the book of Judges—especially the scene at Gibeah—show a nation willing to learn from the worst behavior of the surrounding peoples. The later prophets consistently pointed to injustice and abuse of the poor as evidence of a nation that had lost its way.
Some chose to redefine it carefully, regarding "neighbor" as "someone like me". Jesus reaffirmed loving God and loving neighbor as the heart of the Law. The scholars of His day accepted those statements. But Luke records a conversation in which one such person, “desiring to justify himself”, requested a definition of "neighbor". Jesus responded with a parable that made a hated outsider the one who fulfilled the Law.
The Lord chose to live it. He came to live among us, to live out the most extreme, the most perfect version of love, offering Himself to be with us. To be our Neighbor so that we could be His.
Extreme Love
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
—Psalm 33:22
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall 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: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
—Mark 12:29-31
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
—John 14:23
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
—James 2:8-9
Eugene Peterson put John's description of the incarnation in powerful, perhaps unexpected, language: “The Word became flesh and blood / and moved in to the neighborhood.” The immediacy of that image connects it to a theme that we find from one end of Scripture to the other.
"Love your neighbor..." is clearly stated in the Law of Moses.
Some chose to ignore it, regarding "near" as simply meaning "convenient for exploitation". Events in the book of Judges—especially the scene at Gibeah—show a nation willing to learn from the worst behavior of the surrounding peoples. The later prophets consistently pointed to injustice and abuse of the poor as evidence of a nation that had lost its way.
Some chose to redefine it carefully, regarding "neighbor" as "someone like me". Jesus reaffirmed loving God and loving neighbor as the heart of the Law. The scholars of His day accepted those statements. But Luke records a conversation in which one such person, “desiring to justify himself”, requested a definition of "neighbor". Jesus responded with a parable that made a hated outsider the one who fulfilled the Law.
The Lord chose to live it. He came to live among us, to live out the most extreme, the most perfect version of love, offering Himself to be with us. To be our Neighbor so that we could be His.