Love Your Neighbour
David W Palmer
(Matthew 19:19 NKJV) “‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”
(Matthew 22:39 NKJV) “… ’You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”
(James 2:8 NKJV) “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself,’ you do well.” (See also: Mark 12:31)
These passages express further aspects of the Golden Rule! Here we see both Jesus and the Holy Spirit (through James) articulating what James calls the “royal law”; that is, “love your neighbour as yourself.” This again is a simple way of knowing how to love others. It basically comes down to doing things for them that you would like to do for yourself, etc. Jesus’s golden rule was to do to others what you would have them do to you, whereas the royal law is to do for others what you would like to do for yourself. Together, they form a complete picture of love for others. This leads us to many and varied ways to love others from our own ingenuity. Added to this, here are some very practical, scriptural outworkings of what you can do for another to express love:
1. Don’t Cause Him to Stumble
(Romans 14:15 NKJV) “Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.”
This is a great example of what loving others is all about. Here, the Holy Spirit exhorts us not to cause them to stumble through a lack of self-control in the exercise of our own freedoms in Christ. Yes, as the apostle Paul says, “All things are lawful” but “not all things edify” (1 Cor. 6:12, 10:23 NKJV). Do that which edifies (benefits, builds up) and expresses love—even when it costs you something that you would otherwise have a right to. This self-sacrificing of one’s own freedoms and rights to benefit another is love!
Amazingly, the apostle Paul makes time and space in his Spirit-led, holy writing to clarify this principle:
(1 Corinthians 10:23–31 NLT) You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. {24} Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. {25} So you may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience. {26} For “the earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.” {27} If someone who isn’t a believer asks you home for dinner, accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you without raising questions of conscience. {28} (But suppose someone tells you, “This meat was offered to an idol.” Don’t eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you. {29} It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person.) For why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? {30} If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it? {31} So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Paul’s message is basically that we should forego our freedoms for the sake of another’s conscience—even if they are a baby believer, uninformed about the truth, or even a non-believer. If their conscience is bothered by your intended action, don’t! The Holy Spirit wants us to do only what will help them in the long run: “I don’t just do what is best for me”:
(1 Corinthians 10:31–33 NLT) So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. {32} Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. {33} I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.
Love refuses to cause another person to stumble. In a potential conflict of what is permissible, the sacrifice of your freedom will be for the other person’s eternal good, and it will thus bring glory to God—whether it be in what you eat, drink, wher
