Relation with our neighbors

Introduction

Personal testimony

Felt unlovable - Not because of others, but because of how I viewed myself. I did not like who I was. I continued to compare myself to others and always found fault in myself. My disability and difficulty doing thing caused me to think very negatively about myself.

Coming to Jesus - He loves me. Jesus died to forgive me because he loves me.

The Love of God in Christ Jesus is transformative.

As we understand the awe-inspiring love of God for us in Christ, it changes us from the inside out.

We live out the love of God in our lives and our relationships with those around us.

Paul is teaching the church that because of the love of God in us through Christ we are to love others.

Love for our Neighbors (13:8a)

Romans 13:8 (ESV)

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Love one another

Love - “to have love for someone or something, based on sincere appreciation and high regard—‘to love, to regard with affection, loving concern, love." (Louw, Nida)

Love is very important in Christianity.

1 John 4:7–12 (ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John 15:12–13 (ESV)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Our love for others is a representative of God’s love for others.

Love for our Christian Brothers and Sisters - Jesus and the Disciples.

Love for Unbelievers - Jesus came to seek and save the loss.

Love for enemies - God demonstrates His Love - Christ dying for us.

We are the Body of Christ and representatives/ambassadors for Christ.

Neighbor (9-10)

Romans 13:9–10 (ESV)

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Neighbor - “the one who is near or close by, neighbor, fellow human being" (BDAG)

Jesus teaching on Neighbor. (Luke 10:25-37)

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV)

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Neighbor is anyone in our circle of influence. We are to love them whether they are believers, unbelievers, or enemies.

Love satisfies the law of God (13:8b-9)

Romans 13:8–9 (ESV)

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Loving actions sum up the Law.

Fulfilled the Law - “to bring to a designed end, fulfill a prophecy, an obligation, a promise, a law, a request, a purpose, a desire, a hope, a duty, a fate, a destiny, etc." (BDAG)

Summed up - “to bring everything together in terms of some unifying principle or person—‘to bring together." (Louw, Nida)

Jesus teaches Greatest Commandment

Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV)

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

The Law and the Prophets pointed the listener to 2 important relationships

Relationship with God - The first and most important relationship

Relationship with fellow human beings - Important to live in fellowship with others.

Need to be Loving

Love is not about feelings, its about choice/actions.

Feeling love for my Wife. Caused me to do loving things. Marriage shows what true love is.

We need to be loving to others whether we feel like it or not.

Love for others flows out of an awe of God’s love for us.

As we live in awe of God’s love for us...

His love in creating us for relationship with Him.

Love in sending Christ to Save us.

Love in sending the Holy Spirit to empower, guide, and gift us.

Freeing us from our Sins and darkness and ushering us into His forgiveness and Kingdom.

Adopting us into His family.

We love others we meet.

We love others with the Love God has given us.

We forgive others because we have received much forgiveness.

We are generous to others needs because our need was so great and the Lord was generous to us.

We love our enemies because God loved me when I was his enemy.

We desire unbelievers to be forgiven by Jesus because we stand in awe of the experience of His forgiveness.

Love seeks the best for one’s neighbor (13:10)

Romans 13:10 (ESV)

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

No Wrong to His Neighbor.

No Wrong - “pertaining to being bad, with the implication of harmful and damaging—‘bad, evil, harmful, harshly.’" (Louw, Nida)

Our actions in Love will not harm those around us.

Paul's teaching elsewhere from other perspective.

In Philippians 2, Paul, poetically, communicates the incredible account of Jesus coming to earth and humbling himself as a man and willingness to go to the cross. Therefore God exalts him to the highest position that at his name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.

Philippians 2:6–11 (ESV)

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I wonder if in awe of this section we have missed the point Paul was trying to make in pointing us to Jesus’ example?

In order to understand the point we need to look at what was written before this text.

Philippians 2:3–5 (ESV)

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. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

Jesus came Humbly to earth in the form of man even though he is God. He lived humbly under his Fathers will even to dying on the cross. He was serving us, looking to our interest, in providing salvation.

We are to love others as Jesus loved us. He humbled himself for the betterment of His creation that went their own way and are living imprisoned in sin.

1 John 4:7–12 (ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John 15:12–13 (ESV)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Takeaway

We are to love others as Christ has loved us. (Believers, Unbelievers, Enemies)

Love is how we treat others and actions towards them no matter our feelings.

3 Questions as we look into the mirror:

Am I living love towards those in my circle of influence (Family, Friends, Co-workers, Fellow Students, and Neighbors)?

Am I harboring bitterness or unforgiveness that is causing me to not love others?

Are we, as a church, showing the love of Christ to the community we are a part of?