Based on Romans 13:8-10 (New King James Version)
“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
One of the key things that we need to learn in our walk with the Lord is how to treat our neighbor. I have heard sometimes the interpretation that our neighbor is the person that does good to us without any kind of obligation. Going by this explanation, our most important neighbor would be God the Father since He and His Son created us, and He also gave His Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for our sins; and of course, He did it without any kind of obligation. He did everything because of love. So then, He would be our most excellent neighbor. But, we have to be very careful with just focusing on that, trying to be very spiritual, per se. Because it is very necessary to understand that our neighbor is also our fellow man; each person that surrounds us, whether they are there for an extended period of time, or for a moment.
There are many people that supposedly focus so much in that our duty is only to the Lord that they forget what the Lord Himself taught us to do. For example, there are many folks that say: “I already asked the Lord for forgiveness for the wrong I committed, so I don’t need to do anything else to be forgiven.” And that is not entirely correct; but rather, it’s only part of the equation. It is just as vital to repent and convert before the Lord as it is also to show fruits worthy of repentance with each person we affect with our wrongful action. According to the Word of God, we need to help or relieve the ones we have oppressed (Isaiah 1:17).
If we understand well the Word, starting with something as basic as the ten commandments, we can see the order that God indicates to man; that we should love Him first (the first four commandments), and our neighbor second (the next six commandments). Please remember also that the Lord said that He did not come to do away with the law, but rather, fulfill it, and of course, fulfill it in us through the work of His Holy Spirit while He transforms us and changes us to be like God desires for us to be. So then, if there are folks that think that we don’t have to pay attention any more to the Old Testament, then they are denying the complete mission of the Lord in our lives. A Christian “must” press on towards the goal, just as the Apostle Paul taught. Therefore, if the water stagnates, it will decompose.
The very thing that God wants to carry out in our lives is that we need to learn how to treat each other as human beings, in the same manner as He treated us. A clear explanation of this is the so called golden rule: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12. Would you like for your children to dishonor you as parents? Would you like for folks to try to kill you? Would you like for someone to cheat on you? Would you like for people to steal from you? Would you like for someone to speak falsely of you? Would you like to be envied, to the point of people fantasizing how to take what is yours? If you don’t like for these things to be done to you, then don’t do it to other people! That’s the point. The Bible also says this: “You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Leviticus 19:36. We must practice justice with each person.
The big problem that exists is spiritual falsehood. How can I say this? Easy! If all the people that profess to believe in God practiced what God says to do, the world would be a much better and different place. More specifically, and according to the Pew Research Center, in 2010, it was estimated that there were more than 2.2 billion Christians worldwide. Could you imagine what the world would be like if 2.2 billion people at least tried to do what God teaches; how many problems would be resolved? However, the Lord Himself admonishes His people in the following manner: “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ ‘In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? ‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?” Isaiah 58:1-7. You can try to do all kinds of things that seem religious and good, but it’s of no value if you are not doing what is right with your neighbor.
And finally, we need to practice love with our neighbor, trying to do what God teaches us, because it is urgent and necessary. For it is written: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:7-11.
So then, are you loving your neighbor, showing the evidence that God is truly working in your life? Lord bless! John