On November 12, 1959, a now well-known Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy telling her brother, Linus, that he could never be a doctor because he does not love his fellow man. "I love mankind," was his irate response, "it's people I can't stand!" It is not hard to find Linus’ mentality today, alive and thriving, among people from all walks of life. Over the past few decades and especially the last three presidential election cycles, American culture has shifted almost as far away from the second greatest commandment given in the Bible as it was during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
For most people, it is easy to claim to love the whole wide world as love is understood from a secular viewpoint. However, it may be very difficult to love one specific person based on differences in personality, beliefs, sporting preferences or political parties. Yet, long before the divisive turmoil that exists today in our nation (and even our community) and long before Linus’ response to Lucy, a Pharisee, who was also a Jewish lawyer, asked the Son of God a question that still plagues humanity today—"which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus’ response, found in Matthew 22:37-38, is clear and concise, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” But, Jesus didn’t stop there and continues, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
In just four sentences Jesus summarized the entire Law of the Old Testament. He gave the Pharisees (and us) the Ten Commandments condensed down to just two directives: love God and love other people. In truth, love for God and love for neighbor are two sides of the same coin—one cannot happen without the other. What does this look like in practice? The love that we are called to live out is a practical, personal kind of love that is expressed primarily to individuals, not groups of people. It is a love that reflects the love of God in Jesus Christ to our fellow man.
This love is not expressed merely in saying the words, “I love you,” but by making sacrifices in one’s life to help someone else in need, whether that be a physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual need. That is what God did in His One and Only Son when Christ laid down his life for us. God’s love was expressed to us emphatically and definitively when He put His Son on the cross on our behalf. The Apostle John writes “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers...little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:16,18).
The even harder reality is this—the love (or lack of love) that we express to others, regardless of the circumstances of the moment, is an expression of what we really believe about God. Why? Because every person born is made in the image of God (cf. Genesis 1:26-27). Therefore, how we think about and act toward one of God’s image bearers is tantamount to how we really think about and act toward God Himself. A person cannot have true genuine love and respect for God if that person has no true genuine love and respect for God’s image bearers.
Some people might say, “Well, so-and-so doesn’t deserve my respect.” That will not hold water before our holy, just, and righteous Heavenly Father. Why not? Because the first and second greatest commandments are exactly that—commands. This means that as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, these commands are obligatory, not optional. The love and respect we are commanded to express toward others has nothing to do with whether they deserve it or not based on their choices and actions. Nobody in the whole wide world deserves respect because we are all low-down, bottom of the barrel, wretched sinners (cf. Rom 3:10, 23). So, this is not about whether a person deserves respect based on one’s barometer for such a thing. People, who are image bearers of God, deserve respect and honor because God has commanded us to give it to them.
So...what does the love and respect (or lack thereof) that you have shown in the past or show to other people in the present really say about what you believe about God? Do your words and actions honor Him and point others to His Son, the only Way to the Father (cf. John 14:6)? What about our actions as a community? Perhaps, and unfortunately, we are finding ourselves more and more like Linus in that we “love” mankind, but we just can’t stand people. These are serious questions for the serious time in which we live—a time in which people say and do “what is right in their own eyes,” especially behind the curtain of social media.
May we turn our faces back to the Lord, repent of our lack of love for each other, get right with one another, and walk forward together as followers of Jesus—not being merely hearers of the Word, but doers also.
~Brent Thompson
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