God Wants You to Love Others

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

This passage in Matthew describes one more test the Pharisees use to discredit Jesus.  Previously, they tried to get him to speak against the Roman government concerning taxes. Then the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in resurrection after death, thought they would stump him with their story about the woman who married three brothers successively after the one she was married to died.

Now the Pharisees are questioning him about the commandments of Moses. When they asked what the greatest commandments were, they already knew. But they hoped to prove he didn’t know the law.

In Deuteronomy, we learn that God commanded the Israelites to wear on their foreheads and post on their door frames the part of the scriptures known as the Shema, which says, “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” (6:4-5)

This passage was the most familiar and most quoted in Judaism. In Jesus’ day, every faithful Jew recited the Shema twice a day. (MacArthur, 338) Verse 34 tells us that they asked him this question to test him.

I believe Jesus quoted these two commandments together because loving God and loving others complement each other. When we love God, it’s easier to love others, and that love helps us see God’s grace and mercy.

The Hebrew word for love used here is the equivalent of the Greek word agape, as John MacArthur explains, “... the verb of intelligent, purposeful, and committed love that is an act of the will.” (338) Further, “Genuine love of the Lord is intelligent, feeling, willing, and serving. It involves thought, sensitivity, intent, and even action where possible and appropriate. God has never sought either empty words or empty ritual. His desire is for the person himself, not simply what the person possesses.” (339)

Both God’s love and man’s love are about what they can give, not what they can gain. Jesus taught the disciples that if we love him, we will obey him. Obedience is about submitting ourselves to God because we know that is the safest place to be.

Francis Xavier, a Catholic cleric and missionary who founded the Society of Jesus, lived in the 1500s. He wrote a hymn that described his love for God, “Not for the sake of winning heaven, nor of escaping hell; not from the hope of gaining aught, not seeking a reward; but as thyself hast loved me, o ever-loving Lord”

On Facebook, I followed the journey of a little girl who was two years old. When she was a year old, she had a lung transplant. Now, a year later, her body was rejecting the lungs she was given. Most days, her mom would post what was going on so that people could pray specifically for her. Unfortunately, she was never able to gain enough strength to endure another transplant. A couple of months ago, she entered the presence of Jesus. Recently, her mom asked how people reconciled a loving God with the death of a child.

One comment was from a person who had become an atheist because God didn’t answer her prayer the way she wanted. I realized as I was writing this post that she had the wrong understanding of God’s love for her and her love for God. She loved God to gain what she wanted, and when she didn’t get it, she gave up on him.

Our love for God must include total trust and obedience. We don’t understand many things that happen to us, but that is because we aren’t God. I suspect that even if God explained why something happened the way it did, we wouldn’t understand it anyway. Have you ever tried to explain to your child why your answer is no? They didn’t get it any more than we understand God’s no.

When I started in ministry, I wasn’t sure what to say to people who asked me why bad things happened. Over the years, though, I’ve come to realize that I do not have the knowledge to answer that question in any way other than, “I know God is good.”

I don’t think God sits in heaven and revels in the misfortunes of our lives. I think our pain is his pain. When we weep at the evil things of this world, I believe God weeps with us.

In Romans, Paul instructs us not to just pretend to love others, but “Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.” (12:9-10) This idea of honoring others and taking delight in the good things that happen to them runs counter to much of what you see in our society today. Envy is one of the biggest corrupters in our American lives. I think this is why communism and socialism are making a comeback. There is an attitude that it’s not fair if others are more successful than I am. The fact that they worked really hard for what they have isn’t a consideration.

I’ve seen different complaints about billionaires and trillionaires. The opinion I’m seeing is that these people should give their money to others, especially to those living in poverty. But this is not the kind of love we are told to practice. We should be delighted in the success of others.

Paul tells us that WE should be ready to help people in need. That WE should be ready to offer hospitality. It doesn’t matter what others are doing; that’s not our business. Our business is how we treat others, how we show God’s love to the people we meet. It’s how we use the resources that we have.

Following the paragraph we just talked about, Paul had the nerve to not just talk about loving our friends and family, but he said we should “bless those who persecute us. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.” (12:14) I’m sure all of us can think of someone we don’t want to bless or even pray for, unless praying for God to smite them is an option. Over the past few years, as I have read about the life experiences of those who were in concentration camps during WWII, I have become fascinated by two things. The first question I have pondered is how someone can be so cruel to another human being.

My second query is how the people who were treated so horrifically could forgive their captors. I wasn’t even there, and I get furious thinking about the inhumane ways the Jews were treated. Both tell us a lot about human nature and how the two most important commandments are lived out in the lives of everyday people.

A few years ago, my mom and I traveled to Terre Haute to visit the CANDLES Holocaust Museum. The museum was created by Eva Mozes Kor, who entered Auschwitz as a ten-year-old. She and her twin sister were subjected to horrible medical experiments by Dr. Joseph Mengele.

I was surprised to hear she had forgiven her captors. Her reason for doing so makes sense: she said, “Forgiveness is a way of healing oneself from pain, trauma, and tragedy. It is a means of taking control of your life.” It removes the cloak of victimhood and leads to a peaceful and happy life. When we are encouraged by Paul to bless those who persecute us, we are giving ourselves a gift. It has taken us all these years to understand what God already knew: deciding to love all people is a blessing to us. 

Before I conclude this post on loving others, I feel compelled to address social media. Just like I couldn’t imagine how the Nazis could perpetrate such heinous acts, I can’t understand how people can spew hatred on Social Media. I think because Social Media does not require face-to-face interaction, it is easier for people to say whatever they want with no regard for the feelings of those they are attacking.

I bring this topic up because I believe there is an opportunity to share God’s love on there that we don’t have in daily face-to-face interactions. I wonder what would happen if Christians determined that all their interactions online were positive and uplifting. I’m not saying we would ignore negative posts or posts that encourage bad behavior. Instead, I suggest we use diplomacy and kindness when we post. It is possible to disagree with someone without being hateful.

Loving others unconditionally is not always easy. Sometimes we have to love them with our head before we can love them with our heart. Not only does God require us to do so, but we will reap benefits beyond what we can imagine. Give it a try and see what happens.