Does that matter anymore? In the age of social media, high-speed travel and mobility, aren’t we beyond needing physical neighbours? I know I have remained friends with many of the same people over the last decade, as we’ve each moved an average of 2-3 times in that time.
For many in suburbia, home is a place to sleep and recharge, but little else.
This new series looks at neighbours. We’ll consider, who are our neighbours in this era? Do they matter? Do we need to matter to them?
Question: When have you needed your neighbours? When have they needed you?
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So what is the connection between loving God and loving our neighbour? If there is real love of God, there will be love for ourselves, and love for our neighbour.
See how complete Jesus reminds us this love for God is meant to be: all our heart, soul and mind.
We are so often tempted to hold something back. We want to love ourselves on our own terms – to love ourselves fully, like we should love God. But that would lead to a world full of Gods, and how would that work out?
Or we are tempted to put these two loves in opposition. I can either be good, ethical, and law-abiding to love God, or I can just love people. The problem with this is that true love of our neighbour flows from the love ofGod. Our love for God leads to love of our neighbours, which leads us to want to act right toward them. Without love for God, and an experience of his love, we each have to define love for ourselves, and we all have different ideas about what love is!
We’ll see tomorrow how Jesus’ self-giving love sets the pattern for our love, while freeing us from the traps of loving ourselves first, trying to use others to earn our salvation, or any other attempt to manipulate God or others.
Question: Define love.
