When He was asked the most important commandment, Yeshua replied: “Love G-D and love your neighbor.”
Matthew 22:36-40 “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?’ And He said to him, ‘“You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”’ The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
It’s interesting that when Yeshua was asked for the most important commandment, singular, He did not provide one commandment in His response; He gave two, as if those two were connected. This was so we would understand Yeshua believed that even though these two commandments, written in two different books (one in Deuteronomy and one in Leviticus), were inseparably connected as one. As if it was impossible to keep the first of the two commandments, unless you also were keeping the second. As if Yeshua believed that it wasn’t possible to love G-D, unless you also were loving your neighbor.
So, as people who desire to love G-D, we understand that in order to love G-D, we also have to love people. This isn’t just a suggestion; it is a commandment, which was spoken by Yeshua, while He was walking and teaching on earth. To say it another way, these words weren’t just spoken by Moses, or King David, or Peter, or Paul - humans speaking for G-D. These words were spoken by G-D. The importance and gravity of these words cannot be overstated. We have been commanded by our G-D to love people.
We also understand that Yeshua completed His answer concerning the most important commandment by saying that every other commandment hangs upon our loving G-D and people. In other words, if we don’t love G-D and people, it is impossible for us to truly keep any of the commandments.
Now, for most of us, loving G-D is reasonably easy once we truly believe He is G-D. We may not always understand why He does things or allows things to happen to us. But, we do understand that everything He does is for our good, because He is a loving Father who always desires our good.
However, the same can’t be said for people. All the people we are commanded to love are not motivated by their desire for our good. Some people, maybe even most people we encounter, don’t care at all for our good. In truth, many are only concerned with their own good. Furthermore, some people are actually desiring our bad. Some lie to us, cheat us, steal from us, abuse us, hurt us, and even murder us. Yet, we are commanded to love people.
In this truth lives the tension between loving G-D who loves us, and loving people who don’t. We understand how we can love G-D, but how do we love people?
The answer comes in understanding that love doesn’t mean accepting and overlooking the evil of people. G-D did not command us to ignore their sins. G-D did not command us to ignore the harm, hurt, and abuse they commit against us. What G-D did command us to do is to love them. True love is based upon understanding someone’s value. It’s easy for us to love G-D because we see His value, His worth, His love for us, and His desire for our good. However, it is more difficult for us to see the value in the person who hurts, abuses, steals, lies, and cheats against us.
That is because we confuse their sinful actions with their value. The truth is the two are not the same. Just remember: “While we were sinners Yeshua died for us,” Romans 5:8.
So, how do we overcome the tension between loving G-D and loving people? First, don’t ever ignore their sins, rather, love them while they are still sinners. We understand that they have great value because they were created in the image of G-D. We understand that they have value because G-D loves them. Then, we demonstrate our love for them by telling them and showing them G-D. We love them by telling them the truth: they are sinners who have such great value that G-D suffered and died for them, and that they have so much value, G-D commanded us to love them as a part of our loving G-D. Part of the value G-D sees in us is our ability to love people who don’t yet see value in us.
So, the bottom line is that while we don’t necessarily have to like people or what they do, we do have to love them.