Will God Love Us if We Love Our Neighbor?Jeff Hilles • Quotes • 07/03/2023
Quick Quote - Source - Jeff Hilles A Biblical Christian worldview perspective - The answer is yes, but the order is reversed. The problem is that many today read that to mean, "God will love us if we love our neighbor" and stop right there in their systematic theology. God does love all of mankind. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. However, the ultimate expression of that love is filtered through His need for justice, and our need to accept the sacrifice of His Son for our sins. Romans 5:8 God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Clearly we are told to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27). But, to do that in a Godly way, we must love Him first. And, to do that we need to accept Him as our Savior and Lord, through a belief that Christ dies as a payment for our sins and was resurrected, as we will be someday. Loving our neighbor is not the final answer. Our faith must begin with a love of God and a desire to follow Him through a study of His Word. Author - Jeff Hilles | BCWorldview.org |
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Neighbor
WHEN JESUS SAID to love your neighbor, a lawyer who was present asked him to clarify what he meant by neighbor. He wanted a legal definition he could refer to in case the question of loving one ever happened to come up. He presumably wanted something on the order of: "A neighbor (hereinafter referred to as the party of the first part) is to be construed as meaning a person of Jewish descent whose legal residence is within a radius of no more than three statute miles from one's own legal residence unless there is another person of Jewish descent (hereinafter to be referred to as the party of the second part) living closer to the party of the first part than one is oneself, in which case the party of the second part is to be construed as neighbor to the party of the first part and one is oneself relieved of all responsibility of any sort or kind whatsoever." Instead Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), the point of which seems to be that your neighbor is to be construed as meaning anybody who needs you. The lawyer's response is left unrecorded.
-Originally published in Wishful Thinking