Love Your Neighbour...part I :: naked

Two greatest commandments:

1. Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength :: Ok, fair enough. I can see that is a pretty simple commandment to understand.
2. Love your neighbour as yourself :: Wait, that's it? Just do that? Why? What for?

Thinking about this a bit more, and based on something I heard previously, I came to a conclusion which revolutionized how I thought about outreach, mission and ultimately the whole Christian life.

Jesus' reply couldn't have been more simple, yet more profound.

Love your neighbour. That's it, nothing more, nothing added. Today it's hard for Christians not to add anything onto that. For example we add:

Love your neighbour... so you have a bigger reward in Heaven.
Love your neighbour... so they become a Christian.
Love your neighbour... so they think of Christians differently.

Now I know from first-hand experience how hard it is to love your neighbour without thinkning of the future consequences, or the possible good that would come out of it. Also, these reasons can be a great motivation in getting stuck in with the whole neighbour love too.

BUT... whenever we put reasons, conditions or consequences onto this statement, we give ourselves a measure as to whether we fulfill this commandment. In other words, we measure the people by the chances of the reason being fulfilled; and if they don't meet up to a high probability then we often say, "there's no point".

For example:

Two people with similar circumstance who are on the same level of relationship with you. One used to go to Church and is more open-minded. The other had bad experiences with a Christian and has totally closed themselves off to God.

Which one would you make more of an effort to show love. It's easy to love them, but showing it is another matter. Perhaps it's the more open-minded neihbour since there's the possibility that they become a Christian...

Whatever the case, we shouldn't think about reasons or future probabilities of coming to faith with that person. Jesus said love your neighbour. Love them and show it. If we are to show love by baking them a cake, cutting their grass, helping them out with next month's bill... then Jesus will worry about the future. He's got the plan worked out, he'll soften their heart and he'll do the business.

It's simple a change of mindset, that can really change how we relate to people. Church is about people. Loving them. Showing them love in a world that lacks it.

Jesus: "So here it is guys,
love your neighbour." Stripped