Love One Another

“Love One Another”
by Pastor Andrew Malek
January 24, 2021

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

• Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

The first commandment to love God is not usually challenging for us as Christians; the second commandment, however, to love our neighbor, is often quite challenging. Loving our neighbor sounds simple enough until we have a crazy neighbor. We all have someone that challenges us that lives near us. Our call is to love our neighbor even when they disagree with us or when they may not be loving to us.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus tells his disciples that the most important thing is that they love one another. Jesus is asked, “who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). The man who asked this wanted to justify himself. Sometimes we might label people in order to justify not loving them, or we may be too busy to notice the people in our path. Jesus warns us against our love growing cold because of difficult times, yet God has called us to stand fast (Matthew 24:12). In this time, there is a coldness that has begun to fall in a place where God has called us to stand fast. 

Luke 10 describes a person walking from Jerusalem to Jericho who was attacked and robbed. He lies by the side of the road. People pass by even when they see him, and some don’t see him at all. How do we walk as Christians and love our neighbor like the Good Samaritan who helps the man on the side of the road? 

Loving our neighbor...  

1. Sees us all as the man on the side of the road.
We can all relate to the man on the side of the road. Maybe we haven’t been beaten by robbers, but we have all experienced a moment in life where something has happened to us that has left us feeling wounded. We have all been in a position where we needed a good and loving neighbor who would bandage our wounds and care for us. 

Not all wounds are out in the open, but they are still in need of care. Wounds happen to us, but they also happen through us. When our wounds are not healed, we bleed on other people, even on those who support us. We usually don’t judge others by the wounds they receive but by the way that they bleed. When we understand that we were once in the same place, then we can be moved by the love of our Savior and love people that may be hard to love. Let us be a church that loves those who are hurting, no matter what the hurt has produced.  

2. Sees the neighbors that God has placed on our path. 
Sometimes we justify ignoring wounded people because we have places to go and things to do, maybe even godly places and godly things. How many wounded people do we pass by on the other side of the road? Proverbs 20:12 tells us that lovers of God have eyes to see and ears to hear who it is that he has called us to help. 

Peter and John on their way to pray in the temple saw the lame man as they were going into the temple, and they were not too busy to see whom God placed in their path. We need to make sure that we have eyes to see that are not blaming people for their situation. We should not label people by saying that they are not worthy of our love. The people on our path are not there by accident. God has specifically positioned us to help the people that God has called us to love. The Samaritan got down on his hands and knees and began to love someone from the place where he had already experienced healing. 

3. Sees the mess and the price but loves anyway. 
Sometimes we don’t love our neighbor because we don’t want to get messy. The Good Samaritan had to get messy to help the man on the side of the road. He likely got some blood on him and ended up giving up his donkey. He also likely had to deal with public perception. Maybe he put himself in harm’s way, or maybe he was judged by others for what he did or how he did it. A good Samaritan sees the mess and the price and helps anyway. 

When we choose to get down in the mess with people, it may not be understood by everyone because being merciful leaves us vulnerable to those who believe that mercy is not deserved. Jesus was called a drunkard and a glutton, a friend of sinners, and John the Baptist was called demon-possessed. Are we willing to take on the mess that loving someone can create? 

In this story, the Samaritan is Jesus, and we were the person on the side of the road. God is calling us now to walk in Jesus’ shoes. Jesus got in our mess and poured out oil and wine on our wounds so that they could be healed. He carried us on a donkey to a place so that he could provide a new life for us in him. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 

This is the pattern of life in Christ: we receive love from God, we respond by loving God and others through him, who in turn, love us back. This is how we begin the process of showing others who Jesus is. 1 John 4:11 describes the nature of God’s love: not that we first loved God but that he first loved us, and therefore we are to love others. We are called to welcome broken people and love them the way Jesus did. We are to love like Jesus. 

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

1. Who is the person on the side of the road that God is asking you to see today? 

2. Recall a time when someone loved you like Jesus.

3. How can you give love like Jesus to the people on your path this week?

4. Ask God to give you eyes to see who it is that he is calling you to love.