Are you up to the task of loving thy neighbor?

Posted

When asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Mathew 22:36-39) 

This passage of scriptures defines our two highest priorities in life: to love God and to love our neighbors. Expressing one’s love for God can be demonstrated in many different and meaningful ways. 

Some express that love through sincere prayer, attending church services, fasting from food, water or other modern conveniences, caring for the poor and needy, and so on. Many of these expressions of love for God are also expressions of love for our neighbors. Regarding the commandment to love our neighbor, we cannot truly express love for God without expressing also our love for our neighbor. For the true disciple of Christ, love and service to our fellow man is an expression of our love for God.

The commandment to love our neighbor can broadly be defined as loving our family members, friends, community members, those who live in our country and those living in other nations. Generally speaking, it is not too difficult to love those who we are familiar with, have similar hobbies as we do, have religious or political beliefs that align with our own. 

The bigger challenge is loving those we are not as familiar with, who are different from us, those whose beliefs and worldviews are possibly in direct conflict with our own, or those who simply just don’t like us. However, we are all children of God and members of the human family. We are commanded to love all our neighbors. In Luke 6:28-27, The Savior taught us to “…Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” 

As imperfect as we all are, this can be a challenging task for anyone. So how do we show our love for our neighbors who are difficult to love? Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, taught that we must “learn to listen then listen to learn.” Too often we want our thoughts and views to be heard without hearing the thoughts and views of others. As we learn to listen to others, the listening leads to learning and a broadening of our perspective. We begin to see others the way God sees them, with perfect love. 

While we may still not agree or hold similar views with others, we will begin to feel greater compassion, love, tolerance and respect for all our neighbors. May we all work a little harder to love God and our neighbors by learning to listen then listening to learn.