5 cardinal points to love your neighbour
“And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark chapter 12 verses 31)
- Love for your neighbour is not something to die for.
The only death that is worth dieing, is the one that God did on the whole process to restore man to his place of dominion by subjecting Himself to come in the form of flesh in the Person of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. At the level you love yourself, Jesus instructed that you should love your neighbour. That does not mean you should kill yourself which is against your personal wish, trying to demonstrate how much you love someone.
You should understand your limit in this love. Jesus died for all that no one should died for another. You can go the extra mile to demonstrate God’s love to someone else, but you will be sure that it will not harm you in the process to the point that your faith will drain. There are things that are expected of you as you extend this love of Christ to one another. Do it willingly and you are never made to die for anyone. People may never appreciate your kind gesture of love towards them until they suck life out of you.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans chapter 5 verses 8)
- Love for your neighbour should be in your capacity.
There is grace to love for anyone who has received Christ into his or her life. Jesus saying we should love our neighbour as ourselves, simply means you should love your neighbour in your capacity. You are never meant to love more than your capacity. We grow daily. As we grow in the grace of God’s love, and as it springs through us to extend to others, do it in your capacity.
Jesus knew when it comes to the grace of God’s love upon each individual, different people experience different grace. You don’t expect everyone to be at the same capacity of God love. People will always exercise this love of God in individual’s capacity yielded in God. When people are demanding much from you as regards to the love you exhibit, let them know that it is not in your capacity at the moment.
When someone is in need and he asks you for an assistance of ten thousand naira, you don’t have to go and borrow ten thousand naira to please him when you know your capacity of love is two thousand. Go ahead to show him love of assistance of two thousand naira that is what you can handle at the moment. If you go and borrow with the intention that he will return it to you so that you can refund the one you borrow, yet he or she fails to return, the matter will be on your head. Be warned!
“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans chapter 5 verses 5)
- Love for your neighbour should in the level of your understanding
Jesus says you should love your neighbour as you love yourself, simply means you should love your neighbour in the level of your understanding. God is revealing His love to us day after day. The level of understanding you have about the love of God, you should extend it to others. It is simply saying that the one you don’t understand yet, do not force yourself to do it. Forcing yourself beyond your understanding can lead to sentimentality.
7 – “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 – He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1John chapter 4 verses 7 to 8)
The more one desires to know God, his or her love bank will increase. Do not strive to exercise love beyond your understanding. God is love and love is God. You are God’s and you cannot love God’s way because no one has arrived in that land of perfection. No matter how you try to exercise and extend the hand of love to others, humanity will never be satisfied. People should not push you to the point of taking the place of God in their lives.
- Love for your neighbour, when it is beyond your limit can be attributed as sentiment or eye service.
Jesus says love your neighbour as you do love yourself, never to do such beyond your limit. There are people who claim to extend their hands of love to authority yet they go about doing it beyond their limits. In exercising love, be who you are. People claim to love someone in his presence but never love him in his absence. It is never meant to be so.
Whatever you can’t do in a person’s presence as a result of exercising your love to him or her, do not conduct such attitude in his or her absence. You have to be real in discharging your love towards one another. When we are real in discharging our love towards one another there will not be any room for sentiment or eye service in the body of Christ.
1 – “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2 – Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 – And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1John chapter 3 verses 1 to 3)
- Love for your neighbour should be the way you see and cherish your own self.
Jesus said love your neighbour as you love yourself simply means you have cherished people the way you cherish yourself. If you truly love and cherish yourself, that calls for discipline. One of the ways Jesus said we should love our neighbour is to help them understand the place of discipline. This is one part of the Christian journey people may not want to take.
If I love you, I should be able to make some impact that will add meaning to your life. And one of the ways to add meaning in one’s life, is helping the person stir up values in him or her and that calls for the process of discipline. This is the point many have failed when they don’t want to live their comfort zone.
People have joined a denomination for years, yet have failed to go through the discipleship process. They have been called, followed up and done all manner of engagement in conversation to be convinced for discipleship, yet no avail. If one has passed through a process and it has made the person better, the only way this person will show you how much he loves you is to convince you go through the same process to become better.
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1Corianthians chapter 11 verses 1)
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1Corianthians chapter 9 verses 27)
Conclusion:
“1But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” (Luke chapter 6 verses 35)
To love your neighbour, it inspires you to love both those who love you and those who do not love you. It can also be your enemy, we are expected to throw a hand of kindness to them when we know they need it.
