Loving God and loving neighbor are foundational to our Christian faith. As Jesus points out, total love of God is the greatest commandment followed by love of neighbor: "He 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 greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matt 22:37-39). Often, we focus on one to the exclusion of the other.
Another polar shift that we do lies in how we view neighbor. We tend to swing between recognizing that everyone is our neighbor and keeping a more restrictive view of neighbor to our inner circle. The trouble is, we often seem to find it easier to take up the cause of an unnamed group that we can champion than to show mercy and justice to those beside us. How do we show mercy to our friends and family and the people who do not share our core values and deeply held opinions? How are we neighbors to them?
By Claire Smith
www.missionandyouth.com
No comments:
Post a Comment