HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF?
Love your neighbor as yourself? – Biblical meaning of Mark 12:31
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, VERSES
The second great commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself, Bible Verses
To love your neighbor as yourself is the second great commandment of Jesus. Immediately follow his command to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Following this commandment is the key that Jesus Christ gave us to love others as God loves us; therefore, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love your neighbor as yourself
“No one seeks his own good, but that of the other“ (1 Corinthians 10:24). To love your neighbor as yourself, you have to seek the good of the other and not your own.
“For the whole law is fulfilled in this one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself“ (Galatians 5:14).
Brotherly love and esteeming others as superior… leads you to love your neighbor as yourself
“Brotherly love remains. Do not forget about hospitality, because because of it, some unknowingly hosted angels“ (Hebrews 13:1-2). Brotherly love is what will lead us to fulfill “love your neighbor as yourself”
“Do nothing out of contention or vainglory; rather with humility, each one esteeming the others as superior to himself.” (Philippians 2:3). If we esteem others as superior to ourselves then we will comply with loving your neighbor as yourself.
A new commandment: love your neighbor as yourself
“A new commandment I give you: that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.“ (John 13:34), love your neighbor as yourself fulfill this commandment.
The commandments, “Because: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and any other commandment, in this sentence is summarized: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:9)
WE ARE TOLD TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, BUT WHO IS OUR NEIGHBOR?
If you must love your neighbor as yourself, who is your neighbor? Who is our neighbor?
A Pharisee once tried to test Jesus after asking him what the greatest of the commandments was. The Pharisee asked: “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), instead of giving a direct answer, Jesus Christ addressed the question to the Pharisee by telling him the parable of the good Samaritan to end by telling them about “loving your neighbor as yourself”.
Love your neighbor as yourself: The parable of the good Samaritan
The parable of the good Samaritan teaches us what it is to love your neighbor as yourself, it tells the story of a man who was attacked by robbers on the road to Jericho. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and left him for dead. Shortly after, a priest was passing by on the same road and when he saw the man, he went to the other side of the road and continued on his way. Then a Levite passed by, and he also moved to the other side of the road when he saw the man. Neither the priest nor the Levite complied with “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”; But a Samaritan passed by and when he saw the man, he took pity on him, poured oil and wine on his wounds, loaded him on his donkey and took him to an inn and there he took care of him. The next day he gave the innkeeper two denarii and asked him to take care of the man, adding that when he returns, he will compensate the innkeeper for any extra expenses, this is loving your neighbor as yourself. Then Jesus told the Pharisee to go and do the same.
Love your neighbor as yourself, this is the teaching
In Jesus’ commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” He taught us that it is not about asking who our neighbor is. It is rather about our own willingness to be a loving neighbor; for we are told to love your neighbor as yourself. It is obvious from the parable of the good Samaritan that our neighbor can even be a complete stranger from whom we can expect nothing in return. But following Christ’s commandment means being a neighbor to everyone, and the most important thing is that we be that good neighbor. It starts with ourselves.
HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE?
What the Bible says about loving your neighbor as yourself
When Christ was asked what was the greatest of all commandments, he was not asked by someone who sincerely wanted to know. Rather, it was asked by someone who considered himself an expert in the law of the prophets, who just wanted to test Jesus.
Christ has shown us how to love your neighbor as yourself
And so, with Christ’s response, we can truly see His infinite grace and wisdom, as well as God’s infinite mercy, which is the key to our salvation. By following through on loving your neighbor as yourself, Christ has made it impossible for us to fail because we are so good at taking care of ourselves.
We want the best for ourselves and by making ourselves the reference point for how we should love others, Christ has shown us how to truly love our neighbor, therefore there are no excuses for obeying the voice that says “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”.
Love your neighbor as yourself, without waiting to feel loved
Another important lesson in loving our neighbor as ourselves is that we realize that we should not wait until we feel loved to start loving others. We don’t have to wait until we feel we have a surplus of self-love before giving it to our neighbor. The commandment made it perfectly clear: Love your neighbor as yourself, exactly as you love yourself. Nothing more and nothing less.
The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Love your neighbor as yourself… Jesus mentioned this second commandment to us
“Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is: Hear, Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the main commandment. And the second is similar: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these”
Let us always keep in mind this second commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
These are the great commandments of Jesus. Christ gave us two commandments that encapsulate all the previously mentioned laws and commandments in the Old Testament. The commandments as spoken by the prophets is about our bond with God and our fellow men.
Jesus first teaches us that the greatest of all commandments is to love God with all our being because God is the foundation of love. Only by loving God do we truly learn to love. Immediately, once we put God at the center of our love, we learn what it is like to genuinely do the same for our neighbor and, in this way, fulfill loving your neighbor as yourself.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF?
What it means to love your neighbor as yourself according to the Bible
Loving your neighbor as yourself is found eight times in the Bible. Loving your neighbor as yourself is so important to God that He not only repeats it, but makes it a command. And not just one in a list of many mandates. Jesus combined the command to love your neighbor as yourself with loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. James calls it the royal law. It sounds beautiful, and it is when we obey it.
Loving your neighbor as yourself is not easy.
But loving your neighbor as yourself is not always easy. That is why God made it a mandate. He knew we would fight. Making it a commandment is actually for our benefit. How is that? We have to do it on purpose, be intentional about it. Sometimes even because of our need.
This is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself:
1. Loving your neighbor as yourself means receiving God’s love.
To start loving your neighbor as yourself, you need to know two things: You need to know what love is and that you are loved.
The Bible tells us “In this was shown the love of God toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:10). You are the object of this love. God loves you. Knowing this is essential. And not just loved in a general way, but deeply loved and unconditionally loved. We take advantage of this when we understand that God first loved us. He is the source of our love and he is the one who will help us to love your neighbor as yourself.
To love your neighbor as yourself, you first need to receive that love from God.
God loved us even before Jesus gave himself up for us. God is the source of all love. Before we can give this love, we need to receive it for ourselves. You can’t give what you don’t have; but once you have received that love you must love your neighbor as yourself.
2. Loving your neighbor as yourself means loving ourselves too.
In order to love your neighbor as yourself as commanded, you need to measure correctly. The measure within this commandment is is like yourself. To love your neighbor as yourself you need to love yourself. This is something that is often misunderstood in the body of Christ. It is mixed with dying to self and denying self as if we have to destroy ourselves. This is not true.
Jesus died for each and every one of us. If Jesus valued us enough to go through what He went through, we owe it to Him to value what He values. We need to love what He loves: us. Learning to love ourselves prepares you and helps you to love your neighbor as yourself.
3. Loving your neighbor as yourself means showing grace.
We know that God is love and that this love is for you. It needs to be developed. Imagine if you had a field of good soil and a bag of top quality seeds, would they produce a crop of their own? No. Seeds must be planted and cared for. Grace takes the seed of love from him and the soil of our hearts and creates fruit for the kingdom of God.
The Bible says: “For God is the one who produces in you both to will and to do, for his good will” (Philippians 2:13). Loving Him and your neighbor pleases. Grace helps us to do this. Grace teaches us proper love and respect for ourselves and our neighbor. Freely receiving grace from him empowers us to freely give it. When you freely give what you have received then you can love your neighbor as yourself.
4. Loving your neighbor as yourself means acting with compassion.
When they asked Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” He responded with a story: The Good Samaritan. Even those who do not love God see…