Echoing Jesus, Paul stated that the commandments “are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself”” (Rom. 13:9, NLT). John stated: “And this is His commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” (1 John 3:23, NLT). James instructs us to “obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”” (James 2:8, NLT).
Is God pleased if we have warm affection for him but do not know how to communicate love to others? What are we accomplishing? Remember that God’s grand mission is to bring his community of love to maturity and eventual perfection. This means that we never stop pursuing better ways to love others. And we never stop pursuing purification, knowing that our corruption obscures God’s love and glory from clearly shining through us to others.
In other words, what is Christian growth if it is not growth in love? What is maturity if it is not maturity in impacting others with God’s grace? Ultimately, our maturity is measured by the way we love others and this is the primary way in which God will judge our lives. It is true that loving God is more important than loving others, but loving people is the supreme demonstration of our love for God because this is God’s heart.
Ultimately, our maturity is measured by the way we love others and this is the primary way in which God will judge our lives.
Our love for others compels us to be the ones in our neighborhood who are known as the friendly neighbors always willing to help. Our love for others compels us to be the ones at our workplace who are honest, compassionate and patient with unreasonable coworkers and bosses. In our recreation, our love for others compels us to make friends, understand them and be a source of encouragement. Then we won’t come across as legalistic nor will others be tempted to irritate us just because we are good. When we love others, they won’t be bothered by our holiness; they will glad to have a true friend.
Our love for God is measured by our love for those around us, especially enemies and anyone who is difficult. Jesus bluntly declared this truth as applied to loving fellow believers when he said: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35, ESV). He also said: “blessed are the meek” (Matt. 5:5, ESV), “blessed are the merciful” (Matt. 5:7, ESV), “blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9, ESV) and “forgive other people” (Matt. 6:14, ESV). If we abide in the Spirit we will develop “patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23, ESV). When we read through the various lists of Christian virtues in Scripture we find that the majority of Christian virtues relate to our treatment of others.
