Love God and Love Your Neighbor!

(Plain Text Version)

Christianity is many things, but at its heart, it is a relationship with God and with neighbor.  Since we all descend from Adam and Eve, a “blood” relationship exists between every human being.  When Mary said “Yes” to God’s invitation, God joined the human family.  If we had a record of every birth, we could trace all of these relationships.

Can’t I Just Love God?
Everyone is born with the ability to know that we owe our existence to a superior Being.  Because of this, we have many obligations, such as worship and obedience to what has been revealed.
Our obligations to our fellow human beings are not so obvious.  Without any training, we know that it is wrong to murder and to rob, and that we must try to help when we meet someone in distress.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, ch. 5-7), Jesus made it clear that avoiding robbery and murder is not enough.  We are to give freely, without worrying about our own needs.  We are not to harbor anger or retaliate against those who harm us.  We are to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.
Christ taught that we have these obligations toward every person without exception.  We must carry them out if we are to enter the kingdom of Heaven. 

The Last Judgement
In Matthew 25: 31-46, Christ describes entry into Heaven as based on our care of “the least of My brethren”.  No mention is made of observance of religious practices.  This may be because His audience already understood this obligation, but there is a more important reason:
One who truly loves God will also love neighbor, and one who truly loves neighbor will also love God.

How Can I Do All of This?
We may feel that we are not able to love God and neighbor properly.  There is so much to do!  Here is where the love of God and love of neighbor blend together.   When we are praying well, we will find out what God wants us to do.  We will also learn that God will give us what we need to do these things.  We will learn that God expects obedience, rather than accomplishments.
With God on our side, we have nothing to worry about (see Romans 8:31).