Roots - Love Your Neighbor

Part 2
Now, taking what we learned about how we love YHVH, we are told to love our neighbor as ourself. John said, “If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I John 4:20) We must love our neighbor as passionately as we love ourselves and even as we love God.

But who is our neighbor? Is the one who's address is next door to you? Or is it the person you work with? Who is your neighbor? In Luke 10:30-37, Yahshua tells us of a Jewish man who was on his way to Jericho. Along the way, thieves and robbers mugged him, taking his clothing, beating him and leaving him for dead. By chance, a priest was passing by and when he saw the man, he crossed to the other side of the road, so not to defile himself. Later, a Levite passed by and when he saw the dying man, he, too, passed on to the other side of the road so as not to defile himself. Later, a Samaritan – who I might add, was at enmity with the Jewish people over disputes of lineage much as the Palestinians and Israeli's today – passed by. However, he, taking pity on the dying man, bound up his wounds, pouring in soothing oil and wine, then put him on his donkey and paid an inn keeper to look after him.

After relating this parable, Yahshua asked the scribes and Pharisees, “Who do you think was his neighbor?” Was it the priest or Levite, who kept the letter of law, who performed daily services in the Temple, who kept kosher lives and didn't risk defiling themselves with the dead. No, it was the one who had mercy on the dying man.

Romans 13:10 states, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Yahshua summed up in Matthew 7:12 the whole message of the law and the prophets, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

Thus, if we love YHVH with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our might, then we will love our neighbor as we love ourself. And if we love our neighbor as ourself, we will not bear false witness against our neighbor, nor covet anything that is our neighbors. And if we love YHVH with all of our being, we will not swear falsely by His Name, nor will we practice idolatry or worship other gods. Again, this is the law and the prophets.