Love your Neighbor, even in Church

Series: How to Become a Better Church

Series: How to Become a Better Church

Lesson 1: Love your Neighbor, even in Church

Let's start with the basics. If we were only allowed one fundamental Christian instruction, it would be to love God. But we aren't limited to one, so let's add the second most important instruction: love others, too.

Some theologians call this the Jesus Creed. Love God and Love Others. Before this lesson is over you will understand calling it the Jesus Creed.

In the upcoming installments of this Bible study, we will be looking at some specific ways we can love God and love one another. But as I said, let's start with the basics.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (ESV): The Shema, a foundational document for Israel and for Christians.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Questions

  1. Loving God is really important. How can you tell?
  2. How would you put "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" in your own words?
  3. Does that kind of love sound like something that remains internal?

Comments

Loving God is paramount. Loving God is not something we do with just our hearts or our minds, or even with our hearts and minds together. Loving God involves action, it involves our might, our bodies. We need to actively love God. Loving God isn't passive.

Leviticus 19:17–18 (ESV): An instruction about loving our neighbors from the Old Testament.

17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Questions

  1. How much value does God place on loving the neighbor in the Old Testament?
  2. Sometimes we picture the Old Testament world as "dog eat dog; eye for eye; tooth for tooth". Based on this scripture, what do you think about that characterization?
  3. To whom is this scripture referring when it talks about "your neighbor"?

Comments

The passage in Leviticus is referring mostly to other Israelites; in other words, the Israelite is to treat his or her fellow Israelites with love, not with vengeance or with a grudge. In our church context, this would apply specifically to our fellow church members. We are intended to treat one another with a love the is more than a feeling and more than just liking one another. We are to treat one another with respect, as we would treat our family and friends. As yourself!

Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV): Jesus responds to a question from a lawyer.

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Questions

  1. Where do you think Jesus got these two commandments from?
  2. Jesus goes above and beyond and ties these two commandments together. What does he say about the two instructions when put together?
  3. If everything depends on the two commandments, what happens if we keep one and ignore the other? Which one of the two can we safely dismiss?

Comments

Jesus binds commandment one to commandment two just about strongly as they can be bound. In a very real way, they are inseparable. If I say I love God but fail to treat my church neighbor with the proper respect, I'm not loving God very well.

Challenges

  1. How much better would our church be if we all treated one another like good neighbors?
  2. What are some specific ways in which we regularly treat one another poorly? How can we do better in those areas?
  3. Think of two things you can do this very week to love a church neighbor. Remember, love must be put into action.
  4. What are some actions you can take that are actually forms of loving God?
[Housekeeping Notes: Please feel free to respond to the questions using the comments of the blog page. The sharing of thoughts and ideas is an important part of studying together. Interact with me and with one another, always, of course, keeping in mind that we are brothers and sisters. I'll be doing the same. And if you have any questions you don't want to share here, please send me an email at rmcrob@rmcrob.com I plan to put up a new lesson every two weeks. Thanks for participating.]

Comments

  1. Randy McRobertsJanuary 7, 2020 at 1:00 PM

    I see that several dozen people have dropped by. I hope some of you will think about the material and leave a comment with your thoughts and questions. I hope this will become a conversation. Thanks for checking it out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joe CrumJanuary 9, 2020 at 9:31 AM

      Well done. This is very thought-provoking. For me, "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" comes down to the thought that loving God is my most important priority, and should occupy the most prominent place in my mind. But I find that loving God also requires loving our brother (1 John 4:20), and loving our brother is, or seems, more directly accessible to me. That is, it has many applications that are apparent in my everyday life - at church, at home, on the job, everywhere we go we run into "our brother" in the largest sense.

      In John 14:15 ("If you love me, keep my commandments") Jesus says pretty clearly that one (the primary?) way to show our love for God is to obey his commandments. So that's at least one answer to the last question in your study, I think, though we could certainly be more specific about what it means.

      A recent sermon emphasized Philippians 2:3-4 "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." In other words, be more aware of what other people may need, and less aware of your own wants and needs. Be others-centered instead of self-centered. I think this is a practical way to love our brother/sister: when we encounter other people within (or without) the church, we should try to see them as "more important" than ourselves. Practical, yes. Easy, not so much. But would this be a form of loving God? I think it would.

      Delete
    2. Randy McRobertsJanuary 10, 2020 at 8:38 AM

      Welcome, Joe. I love your thinking. Sometimes the need for obedience gets lost in the glory of grace. Thanks for participating.

      Delete
  2. KerriJanuary 10, 2020 at 8:10 AM

    Good stuff, Randy. Real, tangible stuff.

    I think sometimes the needs within the church are overwhelming and getting involved seems too messy. There are those in physical need, those sick, those grieving, those struggling financially...we struggle with our own messes and the thought of reaching into other's lives can be overwhelming...especially when you belong to a large congregation.

    I try to think about one person each week that I can reach into their lives. Might be as simple as a text, card, or even breakfast...but to focus on one person each week....pray for them and let them know you care.

    When you're only at church once a week, it's easy to forget about others. Out of sight, out of mind. That's why prayer matters...God can use that quiet to bring people to your mind to reach out to. It's so easy to become self centered and focus on what you need to accomplish for the week...we have to constantly be in communication with God to push the focus off of ourselves.

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    Replies
    1. Randy McRobertsJanuary 10, 2020 at 8:40 AM

      Thanks, Kerri.

      Excellent thoughts. I had never before thought of the fact that we are only together once a week as a factor in our relationships. We've lost something there, I think. When we were together several times a week under various circumstances, it was easier to be a family. Thanks for that idea.

      And thanks for participating.

      Delete
  3. Randy McRobertsJanuary 10, 2020 at 8:46 AM

    I have discovered that when I try to comment from the Safari browser in MacOS, the comments go into the ether never to return. My fix is to use the FireFox browser instead, which seems to work well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJanuary 10, 2020 at 11:28 AM

    Randy...thanks for the excellent thought-provoking lesson! I love the format since it allows me flexibility with my personal schedule. In response to your challenge session, I think that cliched greetings distract from a sense of genuine care. I don't know that it qualifies as treating one another poorly at church but it certainly has the potential to keep us from moving beyond the surface in our conversations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Randy McRobertsJanuary 10, 2020 at 11:32 AM

      That's a really good point. Not getting below the surface is certainly a form subpar relationships. Thanks for your comment.

      Delete

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