James the Elder, Jesus’ older brother, called the commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself the “royal law” (James 2:8).
What does it mean to love one’s neighbor as oneself, to love others? Jesus identified loving others as the second greatest commandment, equal in importance to loving God. Loving God and loving others, he taught, summarized the Law and the Prophets and were the essence of true religion.
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22: 36-40 NLT
Since the early days of Christianity, orthodox Christians have affirmed as one of Jesus’ key teachings what are often called “the Great Commandments.”
Before we look at what it means to love others, let us first take a brief look at what it does not mean.
Loving others does not mean belittling them or looking for their failings, mistakes, and weaknesses, and drawing attention to them. It does not mean passing on untrue reports about them or in other ways attacking or maligning their character. Loving others does not mean telling them lies and half-truths or keeping the truth from them and trying to deceiving them. Loving others does not mean viewing other with disdain and contempt and showing them no respect or courtesy. Loving others does not mean harboring ill-will toward them and nursing grudges against them. Loving others does mean hating and detesting them and wishing them harm. Loving others does not mean letting our negative attitudes and feelings toward others cloud our judgment and control our actions. I could write more but I think that you get the idea.
What then does it mean to love others? In this regard we must look to Jesus for instruction. What Jesus taught and practiced provide us with insight into what he meant.
In examining what Jesus taught and practices, we must not forget that Jesus claimed not just to be an ordinary teacher or even a sage, a person who was wise. Jesus claimed to be God himself fulfilling his promise to instruct his people and to make them his disciples. Jesus did not claim that his teaching was his own but God’s. As he put it, what the Son heard from the Father. For those who are genuinely his followers, what he taught and practiced holds far greater authority than whatever anyone else teaches and practices.
In the third decade of a century in which many who profess to be Christians have become obsessed with politics, political figures, and political causes, we need to bear this critical difference in mind. If we indeed believe that Jesus is the Christ, he holds a far greater claim on our loyalty than anything else in this world.
Among the things that Jesus taught not just his disciples but also the crowds that gathered to hear him was to be merciful toward our fellow human beings as God was merciful toward us, to be kind and forgiving like God. He taught them not to just love those who love them but those whom they consider their enemies, those who despised them and whom they feared, even Roman soldiers who oppressed them, forcing them to carry heavy burdens, stealing their garments, extorting money from them, and otherwise treating them badly. Jesus astonished his disciples and the crowds, telling them that they should do good to their enemies, praying for those who mistreated them, and asking God’s blessing upon those who cursed them. I can imagine his listeners shaking their heads in disbelief and muttering to themselves. “Love the Romans!! He must be out of his mind!!”
Jesus taught that we should treat other people as we would wish to be treated by them. If we wished other people to treat us with compassion, friendliness, forgiveness, generosity, gentleness, kindness, leniency, patience, and respect, we should treat them the way we wanted them to treat us. Jesus encouraged his disciples to be charitable in their judgment of others and to make allowances for them. Before pointing out their faults to them, we should first examine ourselves and deal with our own faults.
When his disciples asked him how many times that they should forgive someone, his response was that they should not put a limit on the number of times that they forgave a particular individual. Jesus taught them to ask God to forgive them as they forgave others when they were praying. He taught them that if they did not forgive other people’s failings, they should not expect God to forgive theirs.
Jesus taught that seeking reconciliation with someone with whom they had experienced a rift came before pursuing their religious duties. They were to make every effort to make peace with that individual and to reestablish friendly relations with them.
When he was questioned who was our neighbor, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that parable a Samaritan, a member of a people group whom the Jews hated, was the one who had compassion on a Jewish traveler, robbed by bandits, beaten, and left for dead. It was the Samaritan whom Jesus’ questioner was forced to admit acted truly as a neighbor to the injured man.
Jesus also gave his disciples a new commandment, telling them that in keeping this commandment, the world would know that they were his disciples. As he loved them, they were to love each other.
In talking about loving others, Jesus is not talking about a warm fuzzy feeling that comes over us when we think about other people. Rather he is talking about an ongoing attitude that we maintain toward other people. We refuse to give into what it is described as “the negativity effect,” the tendency to think the worst of other people, and to think in all kinds of flawed ways that support this negative view of other people. We charitably assume that they are dearly-loved children of God and therefore should be rightly loved by us too.
As John points to our attention in his first general epistle, those who love God love his children. They show their love for God ‘s children by loving God and by obeying God’s commandments. The commandments to which John is referring is loving one’s neighbor as oneself, loving our fellow disciples with the same kind of love as Jesus, and the other teachings that Jesus gave us.
Loving others is not only an attitude of the mind but also an act of the will. God’s grace working in us enables us to desire to love others and once we have that desire, works with us to keep that desire and to act upon it. We set our hearts and minds on loving others and do not go back. We keep loving them whatever happens. We love them not because they deserve or merit our good will and favor. We love them as God loves us.
Loving others is also an embodiment of what Jesus taught and exemplified. We exhibit in our thoughts, words, and actions those qualities of character that Jesus himself exhibited. We are proof of God’s grace working in humankind and in the world.
