“God’s Command to Love Your Neighbor”

Date
January 10, 1999

Scripture Text
Mark 12:31

Note
Continuation from previous week’s sermon, “Loving God”

Church folks are so critical about when you should and should not wear. Ask any pastor’s wife. But Jesus said that true religion is loving God and loving each other.

Remember when Jesus told the disciples:

John 13:35

By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.

• Going to Siloam Baptist Church does not make you Jesus’ disciple.
• Being an usher does not make you Jesus’ disciple.
• Being a deacon does not make you Jesus’ disciple.
• Being a preacher does not make you Jesus’ disciple.

It is more than faith in God. It is more than loving God. It is more than going to church. It is more than knowing Greek and Hebrew. It must include love for each other.

Real religion is not simply a belief. It is to visit the fatherless and the widows. It is to stay unspotted from the world.

Loving God and your neighbor go hand in hand. Some people expected Jesus to say that the greatest commandment was either to love God, or to love your neighbor. However, Jesus put those two together.

Real Christianity is combining the two things… loving God and loving your neighbor. It is not "either or" it is both. If we say that we love God and that we have faith in God and yet we don’t have good works, then your faith without works is dead. Anybody can walk into the church and shout. But do you walk the walk and talk the talk?

• Do you come into the church and not speak to people?
• Do you come into the church and get mad when someone accidentally steps on your toe?
• Do you hold a grudge over someone having hurt you five years ago?

How can you love God Who you have never seen, then hate your brother who you see every day (see 1^st John 4:20)?

Good works without faith is a sham and is equally bad. You cannot love your neighbor without loving God. Some people say that in order to be a good person, you should treat everybody right, then you will make it into heaven. You cannot have morality without God. You cannot have righteousness without religion. You must first have a personal encounter with God before you can love your neighbor. There are none righteous, no not one. The only way to live holy is by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is the source of our strength.

• When there is no God, no strength to move mountains.
• Where there is no selfless love, there is only self-centeredness.

If you are not righteous before God, you can love people all you want to… it will not get you into heaven. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Some people think it is hard to love everybody. However, we need to love not only those who are nice to us… we should

• Love our enemies.
• Love those who despise us.
• Love those who hate us.

This may seem unrealistic. We don’t want to like those who don’t like us. However, in Matthew chapter 7 Jesus tells us to love our enemies… to bless those who curse us.

Holding grudges gives you diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and other diseases. You sit up all night thinking about what they did, but they aren’t even concerned about it. You need to show Jesus’ love to everybody… even the unlovable.

Dr. Martin Luther King wanted to love the hate out of the white southerners. If you share your life, you will mend wounds.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Don’t treat them better than yourself… don’t act as if they are superior to you… or inferior to you. Just treat them as you treat yourself. We are all equal.

In order to do this, you need to love yourself. Some of us have so much self-hatred, self-doubt and confusion that we don’t know what love is. We are made by God and what God made is good.

We Black folks have been injected with the venom of self-hate. Most of us will choose a white doctor instead of a Black one… and the fact is if a Black doctor is successful, he had to have been at the top of his class. We do the same when we see a Black restaurant… we think that they have roaches. Don’t you realize that they have roaches at McDonalds?

We don’t feel pretty unless we straighten our hair, have plastic surgery, or get a smaller nose. But we must realize that we are beautiful with our big lips and big hips. However God made us, He made us beautiful.

• Love yourself
• Respect yourself
• Treat yourself right

God loves you. God really loves you. In the midst of our insecurity, sin, and personal strife… you need to know that God loves you. You need to love the drug addict. You need to love the street walker. You need to love the homeless.

In 1999, we need to reach out to the world. We need to set a goal to reach out to 1,000 people to be touched by the members of this church. It is not enough for us to have a good time. We need to share with others.

Church doesn’t begin on Sunday. It begins on Monday morning when you go out the door.

What made a difference in your life?

What picked you up and turned you around?

What gave you a new name?

It was God’s amazing love that lifted me.