• Matthew 22:39 “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
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The lost do not know much of God nor His Word, but they do know the phrase “love your neighbor” paraphrased from God’s Word. And oh how the lost like to misuse that verse! The lost have no interest in truly loving their neighbor nor loving their God for that matter. They quote it to you, though, to push you to do what they want, not what God wants. “Close your church for weeks/months in times of disease to ‘love your neighbor’.” “Wear restrictive masks permanently on your face to ‘love your neighbor’.” “Willingly remove all of your freedoms in order to ‘love your neighbor’.” “Justify the murder of babies and of euthanasia because you must ‘love your neighbor’.” Sadly, many believers fall for this deception, because you want to obey your Savior and love those around you. Notice some important truths about this verse:

• #1 – The command “Love your neighbor” needs specifics. It is not explicit. Alone it lacks necessary details, clarification, directions, and definition.
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• #2 – The command “Love God” comes first. Loving God takes precedence over “love your neighbor”.
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• Mt. 22:37 “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.
• 38 This is the first and great commandment.”
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• If “loving your neighbor” (2^nd commandment) is a reason given to make you disobey loving God (1^st commandment), do not submit. Loving God is first and foremost (Mt. 6:33 “seek first…”). As a matter of fact, you can never truly love your neighbor until you first truly love your God.
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• #3 – Since “all the law and the prophets” hang on loving God and loving others, you must obey “all the law and the prophets” to love both correctly.
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• Mt. 22:40 “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
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• Jn. 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
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• That is another reason why we have an entire Bible telling us how to live our lives and not just two verses telling us to love God and love others! We need the whole Bible; “all the law and the prophets” to correctly discern how to love God and love our neighbor.
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Imagine your have two chore lists in your family. (This is a great family tool idea for you, too!) You have a chore list that looks like a house and you have a chore list that looks like, in our case, a van. (In elementary, my teacher had something similar that looked like a school building.) Underneath the house and the van are hooks with tags on them. Each tag lists one specific chore to do. Each child or family member can take one tag, and the chore on that tag is what that child can do. Each tag does not clean the house and van entirely, but each tag is needed to fulfill the overall purpose of cleaning the house and the van.

Each law in “all the law and the prophets” is one of those tags attached to the first and second commandments (the house and van). Alone the laws don’t exactly fulfill loving God and loving your neighbor, but each law is needed to fulfill the overall commands of loving God and loving others.

• #4 – Realize that you ARE “loving your neighbor” when you stand for truth!
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• Jn. 15:10 “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”
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• #5 – Believers shouldn’t allow a lost soul who willfully rejects the truth of God to define what “loving your neighbor” is and what you as a Christian must do. Remember:
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• I Cor. 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
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The lost cannot “know” nor discern God’s spiritual truths including “love thy neighbor.” Truly loving your neighbor is a truth “of the Spirit of God” that “the natural man” cannot receive. In reality, the lost aren’t really concerned about loving their neighbor. The Bible says that it is “foolishness unto him.” That is like a filthy, lost boyfriend pushing a girl into fornication and saying she doesn’t “love” him if she doesn’t.

In conclusion, if others demand you “love your neighbor” (2nd commandment) make sure to check “all the law and the prophets” to make sure that what is demanded doesn’t contradict loving and obeying God (1st commandment).