Why is loving neighbor so important to God?

It’s first mentioned back in Leviticus 19 and it’s part of the famous “Sermon on the Mount” that Yeshua gave to his disciples in Matthew 5-7. Yet it wasn’t until Matthew 22:34-40, where the full weight of “loving neighbor” becomes clear to us all. In fact, it is those verses where Yeshua reveals that all of the law, and all of the prophets, hang on loving God and loving neighbor. In other words, it’s as if all of the commandments, instructions and words of the prophets can be tied to either how we relate to our love of God, or how we relate to our love of neighbor. They’re the big two, and they are a big deal to God.

Before I go on it’s probably important for me to share what love is from a biblical perspective. In Hebrew, the word for love is “ahav” and it carries with it more than just an emotion and kind words. Ahav is more like faith in the sense that it demands action. With faith we hear God and do what we hear and the doing, the action, is the evidence of our faith. Ahav is also an action, it is expressed, it is not just stated or felt. So when Yeshua says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” we are able to better see the biblical concept because the action of laying down his life, would be the evidence of his love (among many other things he did).

Understanding this, I realized that I had never asked myself why, exactly, is loving neighbor so important to God?

Paying it forward?

For a believer, God is seen in His Word but He is also very evident in His creation. The blessing of rain that provides for our crops and livestock. The new growth of spring, the unimaginable beauty of the night sky, the vast oceans teaming with life. There is no end to His touch upon all we see, hear, taste, touch and smell. As a believer we both see and appreciate this, but what of the unbeliever, where and how does he see God?

The short answer, and perhaps the weightier answer, is within us. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:17 that all we do in word or deed, should be done in the name of the Lord Yeshua. In plainer words, everything we do, and everything we say, should be done in a manner that reflects His character, his reputation, and his authority to the world around us. That concept carries with it the understanding that it is God’s desire that we extend to others, all He extends to us. For example:

He extended mercy to us when we did not deserve mercy. He desires for us to do the same for others (Luke 6:36).

He asks us to forgive others, just as Christ has forgiven us (Col. 3:13).

He asks that we accept or receive others, just as Christ accepted us (Rom. 15:7).

He asks that we live in light (as a city on a hill) just as our Father is light (1 John 1:7/ Matthew 5:14-16).

He desires for us to live a life of love because Christ loved us (Eph. 5:2).

In addition, we are, at least in a sense, God’s neighbor. We are not God, we are somebody else just as our neighbor is not us, they are somebody else. Thus God’s treatment of us stands as the model that we are expected to follow when it comes to how we treat everyone else. He loves us and we are to love others, it sounds simple enough.

Remember when we stood opposed to Him, when our lives were wrapped around ourselves, when God was a secondary thought in our lives? What did He do? He waited patiently and then extended His loving hand when He knew we were ready to receive it. Can we even claim to belong to Him if we are not willing to act similarly toward others? Is it not selfish if we accept from Him all He extends to us and then we don’t do the same for others?

Doing the (really really) hard thing

Beyond just loving our neighbor (essentially, anyone who isn’t you), we’re told that we are to love our enemies as well. We are actually told to express love, an action perhaps best tied to intimate hospitality, toward those who might very well stand opposed to who we are, what we are, and why we are. That is not an easy thing! Loving neighbor requires great humility as does just making things right with somebody we might consider a brother. Think of Matthew 5:23-24 “if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Notice how it isn’t that you necessarily wronged your brother in the above verses, but that he has an issue with you! And yet you are expected to go and make things right with him, or at least make an honest and serious attempt to, before coming back and leaving your gift at the altar. Talk about a bite of humble pie. But this is important to God, again, because we are supposed to reflect Him to everyone around us.

Today we live in a world where our modern culture is taking things that God calls sin, things He even calls an abomination, and they’re being normalized, even legalized. However, we aren’t called to do the easy thing. Yeshua once said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but rather the sinners unto repentance.” (Mark 2:17) In other words, his focus was not on those who were trying to walk a holy walk as much as it was on those who weren’t. So in addition to leaving me with the thought that we should be spending less time arguing with each other over doctrinal minutia while spending more time being a light to a world that gets darker by the day, his words in Mark 2 carry an additional weight to them.

You see, just as Yeshua went into the homes of sinners and ate with them, we too are expected to give time to those that we, in the flesh, might not consider worthy of our time. To be clear, Yeshua didn’t embrace their sins, endorse them, nor promote them, and he didn’t make excuses for them. He simply sat and shared a better way in a manner that could be received. He offered a hand, he built a bridge of communication that could be crossed when the one living in sin was ready to hear. Thus, we too are expected to lay down our bias and reflect God’s character toward those who need it the most, whether we think they deserve it or not. Hard? Yes, but so important to God He put this entire concept right up under loving Him.

Loving God is the first commandment and rightfully so, He is the Creator and Author of literally every aspect of our lives. But right there second, above every other commandment or instruction given anywhere in the bible, is to love your neighbor as yourself. It isn’t just important to God, it’s HUGE to God, and should be to us as well!