Jesus said, "LOVE your neighbor as you love yourself."
He doesn't give us a list of prohibitive actions which void this command (i.e. If we "catch" our neighbor in non-Christlike behavior, this command is void). He says love them. Serve them. He says, "let your light shine before them in such a way they see your good work and glorify ME in heaven."
Jesus loved societies unlovable. Jesus affiliated with sexual deviants, lepers, thieves, the marginalized, the outcast, etc., etc. (and, such were some of you the Bible reminds us).
Jesus would even go out of his way (travel through Samaria a place and people hated by his brothers) to love his neighbor. Actually, he left heaven to come and live among ALL of us. He became our neighbor. He loved us. He made a way for us to be reconciled and restored to the Father.
If we rationalize who we can love and who we can't love, we become just like the Pharisees in the N.T. And, when I read about them, it saddens me.
So church, who is your neighbor? It is probably the person who lives next door or across the street. How do we need to act more neighborly in these days?
He doesn't give us a list of prohibitive actions which void this command (i.e. If we "catch" our neighbor in non-Christlike behavior, this command is void). He says love them. Serve them. He says, "let your light shine before them in such a way they see your good work and glorify ME in heaven."
Jesus loved societies unlovable. Jesus affiliated with sexual deviants, lepers, thieves, the marginalized, the outcast, etc., etc. (and, such were some of you the Bible reminds us).
Jesus would even go out of his way (travel through Samaria a place and people hated by his brothers) to love his neighbor. Actually, he left heaven to come and live among ALL of us. He became our neighbor. He loved us. He made a way for us to be reconciled and restored to the Father.
If we rationalize who we can love and who we can't love, we become just like the Pharisees in the N.T. And, when I read about them, it saddens me.
So church, who is your neighbor? It is probably the person who lives next door or across the street. How do we need to act more neighborly in these days?
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