Loving Your Nearest Neighbor
Recently, in church, I’ve been preaching on the Great Commandment, which is love in two parts: 1. “Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.” 2. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s interesting that this is called the Great Commandment, because by its very nature, love cannot be commanded. How can force another person to love? The threat of force normally accompanies a command: “Stop, in the name of the Law!” “Quit whining or I’ll give you something to whine about!” “If you don’t come to work on time tomorrow, you’re fired!” Commanding and loving just don’t fit together at all. If someone declares, “You HAVE to love me or else!” or “I DEMAND that you love me!”, it pushes the other person the opposite direction. Authentic love is never commanded or demanded. In light of this, there is only one way “The Great Commandment” makes sense. It happens through divine personal demonstration. The only way love can be commanded is through the example of ov...