Love Your Neighbor

How can we show love to our neighbor when they have hurt us or let us down?

The Great Commandment in the Bible says, “to love God with all your heart and then love your neighbor as yourself.” If we are not loving God first, how can we expect to in return love our neighbor?

Matthew 22:36-40 says- But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “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. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

No matter how many times our neighbor may have hurt us, we are called to forgive and be tenderhearted just as Christ has done for us.

Ephesians 4:32- “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

When we learn to forgive others, we are not only showing them love, but also the grace and mercy of God.

1 Peter 3:9- “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

We are called to serve, help, and love our neighbors just as Christ loves us. We have to love God first, so that we can love our neighbor well. Do not seek revenge or hold any grudge. Instead, pray for them and encourage one another.

Leviticus 19:18- “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”