Love Triangles
James 2:8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
Leviticus 19:17 ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Matthew 22:35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And 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.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
A peek into my A.D.D. head: While I’m trying to understand the “royal” commandment I’m also being bombarded with ideas on how to build jigs to speed up the process of constructing sheep sheds out of oilfield pipe. (If this seems normal for you, then we can be friends but it’s dangerous for us to be in the same room together!)
Suddenly, I see the triangles. My jigs are triangles (to give me square corners) but the triangle is also key to this verse because it helps me understand the mind of God.
I can’t love God without loving whom He loves: the world. But here’s the painful part: The world might not love God, or me, back. Loving my neighbor introduces me to the joy and suffering God must feel as He is loved or rejected by His own creation.
Does this mean that the royal commandment is the foundation of having a real relationship with God?
Father, I want to love You more. I want to love like You love. Help me to love my neighbor as myself.