Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Mt 22:39 "And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Mark 12:31 "And the second is like this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."
Lu 10:25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Him, saying, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"
And answering, he said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
And He said to him, "You have answered right, do this and you shall live."
But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
And answering, Jesus said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
"And by coincidence a certain priest came down that way and seeing him, he passed by on the opposite side.
"And in the same way a Levite, also being at the place, coming and seeing him, he passed on the opposite side.
"But a certain traveling Samaritan came upon him, and seeing him, he was filled with pity. And coming near, he bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
"And going on the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I come again I will repay you.'
"Then which of these three, do you think, was neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?"
And he said, "The one doing the deed of mercy to him."
And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
In the end, He tells us why so much is wrong with what we do and how we do it.
We seek the Big Job and T?he Prize and are taught to step on anyone in the way of our getting to them.
"Me over you."
"Get out of my way."
"Eat my dust."
"The girl, the gold watch and everything." (Apologies to John D. MacDonald.)
Check your back for daggers after your buddy at work gets done patting you on it for a job well done.
I can't trust you to do right by me if I do right by you. Because my worldly self knows you and trust me!
Oddly, Jesus tells me to pick you up where you've fallen, dust you off, get you a drink, feed you, apply triple antibiotic ointment, get you a fresh change of clothes, walk your dog while you're in the hospital and then give you a home when they foreclose on your ranch style bungalow. No mention of any expectation of payback. No payback in the revenge sense. Nothing but the deed done because it's the right thing to do.
"Are you going to be a giver or a taker?" The movie Flawless.
And first love, TRUE first love, turns irresistibly outward.
