Love Your Neighbor

Ranked #3,593 in Culture & Society, #79,678 overall

The Greatest Commandment

"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. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets*"

Jesus Christ reduced the ten commandments in the Bible to two. The first commandment is pretty easy to live up to. God the most high is revered and all due respects are given to him by almost all. The second commandment is given an equal importance as much as the the first; however, it is nigh improbable to live up to the standards of treating our lowly and not so important neighbors as equals with equanimity! We can at best exalt them as superstars or disdain them as 'also rans'.

Howbeit, it is interesting to note that even the fate of the prophets hang on these two commandments. There of course can be no doubting the integrity of the prophets or the evangelists, on the count of the first commandment. But then, can the second of the two great commandments be dismissed or trifled with, at the ransom of holding steadfast to the Love of God?

*St. Matthew 22: 37 - 40



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commons.wikimedia.org

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Matt. 10:34”

Love Songs For The End Of The World

An album from Eat Your Neighbors, a four member band based out of Baltimore.

Press on the image to listen

Fall in Love with your Beautiful Neighbor and Hate your Enemy

In my humble opinion that is what almost all of us tend to do. We almost always have a compulsive need to deify superstars and gossip on their jet-lagged news stories. We love beautiful and successful people and tend to burn the daylight oil and fire the midnight oil-wells in order to emulate them.

Contrarily, it is easy to hate people or even ignore them. It can very easily and perceptibly said that man is the only species that does not comprehend man.

Ants live in colonies and follow one another and so do the bees. Fishes have their schools to attend to, birds have their flocks and hyenas have their packs. Sadly, I don't speak their language, hence I am ignorant to their gossips and back-bitings and their innate politics and internal bickering's.

Yeah, we do live in cities, pay our taxes, elect our queen bees, scream for the king Khans' etc. And yes, we do pray to God five or more times a day, offer hundreds of coconuts and burn many sacrificial fires to obtain a one-way ticket to Heaven. Prophets and evangelists do give promises of a permanent ticket to Heaven albeit, conditionally. Sadly, one or the other franchisee's of each Church almost always vies for the box-seat in Heaven - at the cost of the other. The two-way contest between the Protestants and the Catholics had diversified into the Alpha's and Omega's of Christianity long back, and luckily the seats in Heaven are still available only for the Christians to fight for.

"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division" Luke 12:51

Trust the Amazon bookkeepers

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An all time favorite

"Love me like I love you and I will love you even more"

Heads or Tails

Love or Hate

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I do feel Love and Empathize

says:

Is the first of the great commandments really that simple? Can we ever truly love God with all our hearts? More than money, partners, family, friends and even ourselves? Good lens... you've certainly got me thinking!

hamshi5433 says:

"you have heard them say love your neighbours and hate your enemies, but truly i say unto you, love your enemies! For if you love only those who love you what reward shall you get?"
Amen

hamshi5433 says:

LOVE YOUR LORD JESUS WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL...AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOU WOULD LOVE YOURSELF!
AMEN

Tipi says:

"....and the greatest of these is love."

poddys says:

Love in it's many forms is what makes the world go around, but there are a growing number of people who preach hatred of their neighbors, hatred of anyone who isn't one of them, and they tell their followers that they will be glorified if they kill their neighbors by their God. The world is becoming increasingly evil it seems, and all in the name og God.

CruiseReady says:

But it's harder to love some that others. Oh, yes.

darciefrench says:

I feel compassion for people who have a negative view- it's a hard life to live that way

airynne says:

love is what makes the world sane

blujeanmomma says:

Love, compassion and the release of hate in our lives are what should be the greatest gifts that we can possess.

ajgodinho says:

Love is definitely the greatest!

ohcaroline says:

You can't love God if you don't love your neighbor. That says it simply.

UKGhostwriter says:

tails

Jhangora says:

Love ... Absolute Love :)

I don't care much and I have my reasons

karmicchristian says:

Things are getting too lopsided... Let me pull my weight to draw some parity. :)

 

“Whenever we fall, it always hurts - especially in Love”

"Don't fall in Love; feel it"

My personal obligation

This world is a village and we are a bunch of Squids swimming amidst sharks and eels. I would like to thank the many big-hearted giants and the vile-minded sharks and eels, in making this quest a wonderful experience (not that I have come across any of the latter).

I had dived into the waters very recently, and am amazed by the depth and color of the environs and would like to dedicate my two cents worth into sending my love for my new found neighbors. Many of whom, who have been beacons in the dark deep environs of the WWW (Wild Waters of the World). I thank each one of you who had touched upon my contact lenses, to bless my vision in acquainting myself to this watery world.

Featured Lensmasters

A Cheat-sheet to add another five more {:-()

Don't learn these bad habits from me :)

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iTunes

Track Artist Album  
Love Me Like I Love You The Belleville Outfit Time to Stand
Like You'll Never See Me Again Alicia Keys As I Am
Love Me Like I Love You Byther Smith Throw Away the Book
Important!

The Most Important Thing

Learn to love yourself and discover 'WHO' you are first, before attempting to love your neighbors. :)

Love me - Love me not!?

  • Tipi May 21, 2011 @ 11:49 am | delete
    You certainly get to the heart of the matter here and share some excellent original thoughts that caught my attention. "But then, can the second of the two great commandments be dismissed or trifled with, at the ransom of holding steadfast to the Love of God?" We do try to "trifle" and work around to please ourselves. I love your observation about the competition for the box seat in heaven, as though man can determine who will sit on the right or the left. The comparison to other creatures reminds me of "..go to the ant, oh sluggard", we still have time to get things more right but we will only .."be like Him when we see Him face to face". Thank you for your efforts to head us in the right direction!
  • poddys May 20, 2011 @ 12:26 am | delete
    Whether it's loving thy neighbor, doing random acts of kindness, helping a little old lady in the grocery story, or whatever, acts of love when freely given rub off on others. If only more people could be like this, then the world would be a better place.
  • CruiseReady May 14, 2011 @ 7:06 pm | delete
    It may be harder to love one's self that to love just about anyone else.
  • darciefrench May 12, 2011 @ 1:21 pm | delete
    It's true- we need to find the love within before we can project it outwards.
  • katiecolette May 11, 2011 @ 8:51 am | delete
    So true - you can't love others if you don't love yourself! Great lens :)
  • LizMac60 May 9, 2011 @ 1:20 pm | delete
    None of us loves God even a tiny bit as much as he should be loved. If we don't love our brother human we don't love God. 1John 4 v 20 "For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" when we love our brother we express our love for God. Yes it is difficult.
  • d-artist May 3, 2011 @ 1:00 pm | delete
    My life is based on God's Love...it can't get any better then that....I always ask myself when I'm torn about something, "what would Jesus do"...for me I can not hate a human, but hate the act.
  • blujeanmomma May 2, 2011 @ 11:40 am | delete
    We often toss the word Love around without ever truly believing in it or expressing it properly. A lens such as this makes us go back and think about what love really means and how we can improve our lives by allowing to let love into our hearts and then sharing it with others.
  • ajgodinho May 1, 2011 @ 3:32 pm | delete
    The love of God is definitely the most wonderful thing. If we could only learn to love with that unconditional love, this world would be different place. Having said so, each one of us can still make a difference even in this dark world that we live in...help us Lord! :)
  • ajgodinho Sep 5, 2011 @ 11:50 am | delete
    Just came back to sprinkle some squid angel dust on this lens which talks about the most important topic of ALL...stay blessed my friend :)
  • ohcaroline Apr 28, 2011 @ 1:12 pm | delete
    Gives you lots to think about and work out in your daily living.
  • alyssa87 Apr 25, 2011 @ 6:50 am | delete
    good stuff :) interesting!
  • UKGhostwriter Apr 24, 2011 @ 10:45 am | delete
    Great lens - well done!
  • Jhangora Apr 23, 2011 @ 3:58 pm | delete
    I do love u fellow Lensmaster. Thanx a lot for featuring me on your Lens :)

About the Author

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karmicchristian

Hi, My name is Charles - author of the book Karma in Christianity. I write on theology, theophilosophy, personal development & healthy living. I welcome... more »

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