NCC Q7: Loving "that" neighbor

New City Catechism Question 7

http://www.newcitycatechism.com/

Q: What does the law of God require?

A: Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience; that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbor as ourselves. What God forbids should never be done and what God commands should always be done.

Matthew 22:37-40

“And Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all of the Law and the Prophets.’”

This passage, what we often call the Great Commandment, is actually two commandments: Love God, love neighbor. But the second is as John Wesley puts it, “inseparably connected with the first.” You cannot love God without loving your neighbor. And this Great Commandment truly does summarize the entire law of God: Love God, love neighbor. As New City Catechism moves into studying the Ten Commandments in the material ahead it is easy to see that the Ten Commandments are simply an expanded commentary on this Great Commandment that Jesus gives us: Love God, love neighbor. This truly is the foundation of God’s entire law.

Now clearly we cannot be saved through the obedience to the law, we are saved by grace through the cross of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the cross of Jesus Christ does not do away with the law; rather the cross ushers us into a relationship with God where we can follow and obey his law. So our goal as followers of Christ should be to perfectly obey this law: Love God, love neighbor. And this side of heaven we will always have opportunity to grow in this, because we clearly aren’t perfect yet! We can always grow in our love and devotion for God, to grow in surrendering more and more of our lives to him, and to give God access to the dark closets of our hearts and mind and let the Holy Spirit do his powerful, cleansing, and purifying work. 

We can also grow in loving our neighbor. But this seems to be where we start to add exemptions to this law. Just as the lawyer in Luke 10:29 tries to get a neighbor “exemption” from Jesus, we also try to qualify who our neighbor is by restricting our neighbors to those people who we like, who we get along with, who agree with us, and who love us in return. But Jesus gives us no such exemptions! The parable of the Good Samaritan that follows the lawyer’s inquiry teaches us that 1) we need to love others even when it is inconvenient, and 2) our neighbor is everyone, even people that we despise. Wesley eloquently puts it this way in the catechism material:

“Your neighbor—not only your friends, kinfolk, or acquaintances; not only the virtuous ones who regard you, who extend or return your kindness, but every person, not excluding those you have never seen or know by name; not excluding those you know to be evil and unthankful, those who despitefully use you. Even those you shall love as yourself with the same invariable thirst after their happiness. Use the same unwearied care to screen them from whatever might grieve or hurt either their soul or body. This is love.” (italics added)

There can be no qualifications or exemptions when it comes to God’s law. We must love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and not just part. And we must love our neighbor as ourselves and not restrict who our neighbor is. And if our neighbor seems too difficult to love, then let us simply reflect on Jesus, who died for us: miserable, wretched, unlovable sinners. We are that neighbor who is difficult to love and doesn’t deserve love! But despite that, Jesus loves us with a self-giving, self-sacrificial, self-emptying love. And he calls us to love in the same way (1 John 4:10-11).