Loving God, Loving Each Other

Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV) Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Walk into any church in the world and you will find a mess. I know we want to think of churches as perfect places where we can forget about the world and concentrate on Jesus but that is just not reality. Think about how an all knowing God looks at the typical congregation that gathers each Sunday morning.

Sitting in the third pew on the right is the lady that seems to have it all together, she puts on an air of righteousness, and knows all the right things to say but what the world doesn’t know is that she is addicted to pain medicine. Just behind her is the family that argued all the way to church. Across the way is the man who watches porn on the internet. On the back row are the people that come out of a sense of duty but would rather be at home or on the beach. Sitting on the front row is the little girl that wishes mommy and daddy would stop fighting. Right behind her are the people that don’t know how they are going to pay the mortgage this month. Church is not a place full of perfect people but a place full of hurting people.

That is why Jesus came. He knew that we needed a Savior! He knew that we needed Hope! He knew that we were lost and confused stumbling in the dark. He didn’t send us a map or some great instructions. Jesus came into the midst of our chaos and said let me help you with that load. We often say, “Jesus loved us when we were unlovable” but really He loved us because we were unlovable. Your sins and failures didn’t make God run away they made Him run to you.

Loving God and being conformed to His image allows us to see people as they are and love them anyway. It is religious pride that looks at hurting humanity and feels no compassion. The Pharisees would judge the woman found in adultery and stone her to death, Jesus looked at the same woman with compassion and I believe that instead of writing her sins on the ground He wrote theirs. When each of the religious people had slinked away Jesus said,

“Neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more.”

Which part of that statement resonates with you? “Neither do I condemn thee” or “Go and sin no more.” The answer will help you see which camp you lean towards. Are you quick to forgive and not condemn or do you expect perfection? I believe that the only person who could ever say “go and sin no more” without feeling the sting of their own failures was Jesus. With that in mind perhaps what we should concentrate on is the “neither do I condemn thee.”

If loving a perfect God with all our heart, soul, and mind is the greatest commandment and we struggle with that at times we shouldn’t find it a surprise that the second commandment might even be harder. God doesn’t hurt us, people do. God doesn’t fail us, people do. God doesn’t lie to us, people do. God has never let us down, people do. The harsh reality is that too often we stand with the crowd around the woman caught in adultery waiting for Jesus to join us in condemnation. He doesn’t!

Loving our neighbor as ourselves requires us to put away pride and condemnation. We must realize that we aren’t perfect. Many times Jesus has to come and pick us up, cleanse all over again, and set our feet back on the path. Maybe that is why Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”