So it's clear that God sees all of us as potential children. His Word tells us that God desires that all would be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Will everyone be in heaven? No, but that's not because God doesn't desire that to be the case. When we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we grow to recognize that everyone is part of His creation. But how can we love someone who acts hatefully toward us? Is our neighbor more than the guy next door? Could he or she be someone in our community or almost anyone we meet? Could our enemies also be our neighbors? Jesus says that it's so. Let's look at who Jesus says our neighbor is: You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:43). The question then is, who is our neighbor, and how do we love him or her? If we love the Lord God with all our heart, soul and mind, loving our neighbor is the natural result. Jesus was summing up all the law in these two statements. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. His answer stunned them: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. These religious leaders had made almost an art form of classifying all the various laws and giving them relative degrees of importance, so in asking Jesus this question, their aim was to test Him. Love thy neighbor was, in part, Jesus' answer when the Pharisees, the chief religious sect of that day, asked Him about the greatest commandment in the Law (See Matthew 22:36-40). Love thy Neighbor - Christ's Answer to Religion But where did it originate, and what does it really mean? In a time when neighbors, at least in America, are people we rarely see (thanks to garage door openers and busy lives), or are thought of as nuisances with barking dogs and noisy children, how can we possibly love our neighbors? "Love thy neighbor" is a term that's become almost clichйd over the years. Love Thy Neighbor Love Thy Neighbor - What's the Origin of this Phrase?
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