Love Your Neighbor

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Following his command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37),” Jesus calls each of us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We should recognize that Jesus does not say that the command to love our neighbor is any less important than the command to love God. He says the second commandment is like the first then enforces their unity in Matthew 22:40 by saying, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

We are all experiencing this time of economic uncertainty differently. Essential workers continue to go to work every day during the stay-at-home order. Some employers are allowing their employees to work from home. Other people are asked to stay at home, but may remain employed. Some have been laid off or furloughed, and many small businesses have been forced to close their doors until further notice. Most of us spend our time thinking about how we have been affected by the pandemic and what we should do next to adapt and overcome. However, I doubt many of us are considering how this may be affecting our neighbors. Or, we justify not inquiring by telling ourselves there isn’t much we can do because we have to stay at home.

It would be a great loss for Christianity if because of this pandemic we excused ourselves from loving our neighbors. Furthermore, it would be disobedient to the command we’ve been given by Christ. I’m not suggesting that we act in any way that is outside of the orders that have been put in place by our government.  I am suggesting that we pray for creative ways to love our neighbors and that we reach out to them and ask if there is any way we can be praying for them.

We can either use this time as an opportunity to love others with the beautiful, Christ-centered love that we have been given or we can give in to every excuse that world has given us not to.
Let us choose to love.