Loving Your Neighbor; A Practical Guide to Keeping the Second Great Commandment

By Rev. Dave Boston

Loving Your Neighbor: A Practical Guide to Keeping the Second Great Commandment explores what God actually means by the word "love." Often, in our culture, we use the word "love" to mean "like very, very much," as in, "I love pizza!" But then there are Bible verses that command us to love our enemies; clearly, the Lord cannot be asking us to like them very much.

This book looks first at the heart of love, as evidenced by God and others. From these scriptural records, we can see that spiritual love really means a selfless caring for the other. When we love, we must start with a motivation that focuses solely on the well-being of the other and not on any benefits to self.

Next, as this is a practical guide, this book examines "pictures" of love, words that give the reader a picture of how this love might actually practically work in our lives. Often, these biblical words have both a physical and a figurative usage. The physical usage gives us the picture, and the figurative usage shows us how to practically apply this in loving our neighbor.

Finally, the author shows that God has given us tools in the Bible to help us get better at loving our neighbor. God gave us the commandment, but then He was loving enough to help us love and to help us grow in loving our neighbors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781638856221

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Introduction: Four Whys

So What Is Love Really?

Chapter 1: The Author of God's Love

God is love

For God so loved

God demonstrates His own love for us

In this the love of God was manifested

Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us

An unchangeable, loving relationship

A guaranteed eternal future

Chapter 2: The Agent of God's Love

Jesus always pleased God

The ultimate example of the heart of love

Chapter 3: The Imitators of God's Love

Peter

Paul

Unsung Heroes

Barnabas

Timothy

Epaphroditus

Epaphras

Tychicus

Our turn—or what does love look like for us?

What Is the Heart of Love?

Chapter 4: The Heart of Love

What Does Love Look Like?

Actions (or pictures) of love

Chapter 5: Receiving

What does my picture look like?

Chapter 6: Pursuing

What does my picture look like?

Chapter 7: Edifying

What does my picture look like?

Chapter 8: Equipping or Perfecting

What does my picture look like?

Chapter 9: Serving

What does my picture look like?

Chapter 10: Stretching

What does my picture look like?

How Are We Equipped to Love?

Chapter 11: God's Word: Our Standard and Instruction Manual

Our Standard and Instruction Manual

Number 1: God's love for us

Number 2: How to live and how to worship and serve Him

Number 3: How to prepare for the next life

Final note

Chapter 12: God's Family: Brothers and Sisters to Help Us Grow

Brothers and Sisters to Help Us Grow

Chapter 13: God's Help: Access to God's Heart through Prayer

Access to God's Heart through Prayer

Chapter 14: Final Thoughts

About the Author

cover.jpg

Loving Your Neighbor; A Practical Guide to Keeping the Second Great Commandment

Rev. Dave Boston

ISBN 978-1-63885-621-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63885-622-1 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Rev. Dave Boston

All rights reserved

First Edition

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

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www.covenantbooks.com

Introduction: Four Whys

Four Whys

Why…another book on love? Haven't we been inundated with love stories, books, poems, and songs since time began? Well, thankfully, yes, we have. And with love being so extraordinary, that's just fine. But Loving Your Neighbor is different from the flowery musings usually associated with love; this book explores love from God's perspective. God is the author of love, and the love that He defines is not simply an emotion but a deep caring that motivates to any action necessary. We will look at the actions associated with (or pictures of) love, but only after we have seen the true heart of love that motivates them.

Why…a book on the second great commandment? What about the first great commandment? Wouldn't it make more sense to write a book on the first before the second? Well, a book on the first great commandment is coming, but there is actually a sound reason for writing about the second great commandment first.

Often in the Bible, words and concepts have both a physical and a figurative usage. As one understands the physical usage, the picture of the figurative usage becomes clearer. For example, the King James Version of the Bible uses the word edify, referring to the action of building up someone. The Greek word translated edify is oikodomeo, and it is used in the King James Version to "build a house upon a rock in Matthew 7:24 and to build a house upon the sand" in Matthew 7:26. Most of the uses of oikodomeo are used in literal building, a clear concept for our minds to understand.

Now that we have a picture in our minds of what this word means, we can understand its figurative uses in the Bible as well. In 1 Corinthians 8:1, we see that knowledge puffs up in contrast to love, which edifies. Puffing up and edifying both make something bigger; puffing up builds someone with air, while edifying builds someone with solid words and actions to bring them to a better place. We will study more of this in Part 3, but the point for now is to see that, many times, when we understand the physical—in this case, loving our physical neighbor—we will be able to understand the spiritual; that is, loving our God and heavenly Father.

If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)

Our brother is in front of us, totally visible and real and therefore available to be loved. God, however, is spirit and invisible, making it a little more challenging. However, as we learn to love our neighbor, whom we can see, we can use that understanding to better love God, whom we have not seen.

Why…should we love? Although our motivation to love our neighbor is slightly beyond the scope of this book, a great key to wanting to love God and then love our neighbor is found in 1 John.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7–11)

Note the above verse 11: Why should we love? Well, to start with, because God loved us first. As we see how much and how wonderfully God has loved us, we can then be motivated to reach out and love others. I've noticed through the years that when I have had trouble loving others, it's usually because I have forgotten how much God has loved me.

In the first chapter of Part 1, The Author of God's Love, along with describing what His love is, we will also see just how God has loved us—you and me—personally. What better or more appropriate response could there ever be but to give God our absolute heart and soul in loving Him and in loving our neighbors out of absolute gratitude? So as you read this section, please bask in the truth that your heavenly Father knows you so well and chooses to love you this deeply; enjoy it! And hopefully we will all be motivated to love our neighbors.

We should also love our neighbors because God, our Father, commands us to (after all, it is His universe); and yes, I can also hear the myriad of voices of parents of generations past and present saying, "Because I said so." However, with God's heart of love, when He asks us to do something, you know it has to be good for us. Consider these verses in Hebrews:

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. (Hebrews 12:9–10)

Now we're not talking about discipline necessarily here, but the point is that whenever God interacts with us, it is always for our benefit. Because God always loves, His focus is on us and what would benefit us. Therefore, if He asks us to love, then loving is for our own good.

And God truly loved us first, as we saw above. Our heavenly Father is not asking us to do something He has not only done first, but also something He has done perfectly first for you and me personally.

As we'll see, the love we are discussing here is a lot deeper than simply slipping on a banana peel and falling in love. If God loves this way—enough to watch His only begotten, fully loving, and obedient Son be tortured and killed for us—then we are definitely exploring something magnificent.

And finally, why…now? Why is this love a timely topic? As this is penned, we live in a culture that is frequently singling out people and leaving them lonely and disconnected. As more people focus only inwardly on themselves, our society becomes colder and less inviting, and sadly, the hurts in people's hearts go unattended. When people truly love their neighbor, a warmth of the soul begins to emerge, and it can spread and flourish to make life joyful and exciting again. What better contribution could one make in life?

Let's get started. This book has four major parts:

Part 1: So What Is Love Really? These chapters will be a detailed look at what love really is, gleaned from how God loves, how the Lord Jesus Christ loved while on earth, and how others—Christians—imitated that love.

Part 2: What Is the Heart of Love? Gleaned from Part 1, we will explore the foundation of love, the proper heart and attitude which love requires. Once we understand the heart of love, the actions of love in Part 3 become clearer.

Part 3: What Does Love Look Like? We will explore several examples of actions—pictures of love—whereby God teaches us how to apply the heart of love into helping and serving others. Each chapter will also have a small section on how does my ‘picture' look to give us an idea of how to begin or improve on this action of love in our personal lives.

Part 4: How Are We Equipped to Love? Our God and Father loves us so much that He even equipped us with tools to help us love better and to better accomplish His goals for us!

My prayer and purpose for this book is simple: that anyone who reads this book will be blessed, edified, and more motivated to love. May God bless each and every one of you with His abundant love!

Part 1

So What Is Love Really?

Great question—deserves a great answer! We can glean some great truths from the Lord's commandment from which this book derives its title.

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: ‘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. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:36–39)

Of course, loving God is first and foremost, as the Lord states. And the Lord gives the standard for loving God: with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. In other words, this first and greatest commandment of loving God should be an all-encompassing mindset that guides our daily living.

With this in mind, verse 39 becomes even more interesting: "the second [commandment] is like unto it." How is the second commandment like the first and great commandment? To start with, of course, it's the same action of love—no rocket science there. But in addition, the second commandment is like the first in that it gives us the standard of how to walk in love toward our neighbor—that is, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. The Lord has raised the bar of love from doing a nice deed (or a random act of kindness) to that same all-encompassing mindset with which we are to love our God.

The Gospel of Luke contains a similar record to the above record in Matthew and illustrates what this love will look like.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the Law? he replied. How do you read it? He answered: ‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:25–29)

This expert in the law, or lawyer, correctly answered about the importance of loving God with all of our being and also correctly adds the command to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus concurs with his answer, and the lawyer should have let it go, but he just couldn't.

The lawyer asks for clarification on who his neighbor is, and Jesus responds with the popular parable of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan loved his neighbor by going as far as possible to serve him, even though

it was inconvenient,

it cost him money, and

there was seemingly nothing in it for him.

We will examine this record in more detail later, but for now, simply put, love is a completely selfless act, the focus of our attention completely on the well-being or needs of the one being loved. And isn't this the standard with which God Almighty loved us?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

What an incredibly selfless act! For God, who is love (1 John 4:8, 16), to give up His beloved Son to be tortured and killed is almost beyond belief, certainly sending shivers up and down the spine of parents who put themselves in God's position. And this is not to say that people do