Living Like Jesus
Contrary to what many think, the command to love our neighbor is not something newly taught by the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God already had commanded His people to “love your neighbor as yourself “ (Lev. 19:18, NKJV) and to “love [the stranger] as yourself “ (vs. 34, NKJV).
Why, then, did Jesus say, “ ‘A new commandment I give to you’ “ (NKJV)? The newness of Jesus’ instruction was in that it had a new measure: “ ‘as I have loved you’ “ (NKJV). Before the incarnation of Christ, men did not have a full manifestation of God’s love. Now, through His selfless life and death, Jesus demonstrated the real and deepest meaning of love.
How Jesus Lived
In spite of being constantly under Satan’s fiercest attacks, Jesus lived an unselfish life of loving service. His priority was always centered on other people, not on Himself. From childhood to the cross, He showed a constant tender disposition to minister to others. His willing hands were ever ready to relieve every case of suffering He perceived. He lovingly cared for those who were considered by society to be of little value, such as children, women, foreigners, lepers, and tax collectors. He “ ‘did not come to be served, but to serve’ “ (Matt. 20:28, NKJV). Therefore, He “ ‘went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil’ “ (Acts 10:38, NKJV). His sympathy and merciful interest for the well-being of others were more important to Him than satisfying His own physical need for food or shelter. Indeed, even at the cross He cared more for His mother than He did about His own sufferings (John 19:25–27).
[Matthew 9:36, 14:14, and 15:32 teach us about how Jesus looked at people]
Jesus was sensitive to the needs of people, and He truly cared about them. His heart reached out with compassion to great multitudes that were weary and scattered. He was moved with compassion toward helpless individuals, such as the two blind men near Jericho (Matt. 20:34), a pleading leper (Mark 1:40, 41), and a widow who had just lost her only son (Luke 7:12, 13).
Every act of mercy, every miracle, and every word of Jesus was motivated by His infinite love, an unwavering and permanent love. At the end of His life, He vividly showed His disciples that, having loved them from the beginning, “He loved them to the end” (John 13:1, NKJV). With His death on the cross, He demonstrated to the entire universe that selfless love triumphs over egoism. In the light of Calvary, it is clear that the principle of self-renouncing love is the only valid foundation of life for earth and heaven.
Love Your Neighbor
To live like Jesus means to show the same love He demonstrated. He illustrated this kind of love through the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37), which He told in dialogue with a lawyer. The lawyer summarized our duty to God and fellow human beings: “ ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself “ ‘ “ (vs. 27, NKJV). The lawyer knew His Bible well (he quoted by heart Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18), but he must have felt guilty for not demonstrating love to his neighbor. In an attempt to justify himself, he asked Jesus: “ ‘Who is my neighbor?’ “ (Luke 10:29, NKJV).
To the question: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered, basically, that our neighbor is every person who needs our help. Thus, instead of asking: “What can my neighbor do for me?” we should ask: “What can I do for my neighbor?” Jesus went far beyond the usual negative rendering of this rule at that time: “do not do to others what you yourself dislike.” By presenting it in a positive way, He addressed not only what we need to avoid but especially what we have to do. We need especially to remember that this principle does not tell us to treat others as they treat us. After all, it’s easy to be kind to those who are kind to us or nasty to those who are nasty to us; most people can do that. Instead, our love toward our neighbor should always be independent of the way our neighbor treats us.
Love Your Enemies
The supreme proof of genuine Christianity is loving our enemies. Jesus established this high standard in contrast with the prevalent idea of His time. From the commandment, “ ‘ “You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” ’ ” (Lev. 19:18, NKJV), many had inferred something the Lord never said or planned: you shall hate your enemy. Of course, that wasn’t implied in the text itself.
An adversary can show us enmity in three different ways: hostile attitudes (“hate you”), bad words (“curse you”), and abusive actions (“spitefully use you and persecute you” [Matt. 5:44, NKJV]).
To this threefold expression of enmity, Christ instructs us to respond with three manifestations of love: doing good actions to them (“do good” to them), speaking well of them (“bless” them), and interceding before God for them (“pray” for them). The Christian’s answer to hostility and antagonism is to “overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).
Notice: Jesus requests us first to love our foes and then, as a result, to demonstrate this love through good actions, kind words, and intercessory prayer. Without heaven-inspired love, those actions, words, and prayers would be an offensive and hypocritical forgery of true Christianity.
In order to help us to understand this high command, the Lord used three arguments. First, we need to live above the low standards of the world. Even sinners love each other, and even criminals help each other. If following Christ doesn’t raise us to live and love in a way superior to the virtue of the children of this world, what would its value be? Second, God will reward us for loving our enemies; even though we do not love for the reward, He will grant it graciously to us. And third, this type of love is an evidence of our close communion with our heavenly Father, who “ ‘is kind to the unthankful and evil’ ” (Luke 6:35, NKJV).
How to Live Like Jesus
Jesus’ teachings set such a high ideal of a selfless, loving life that most of us probably feel overwhelmed and discouraged. How can we, who are selfish by nature, love our neighbor unselfishly? Moreover, is it even possible for us to love our enemies? From a human point of view it is utterly impossible. But the Lord would never ask us to love and serve those who are hateful and unlovable without providing us also with the means to accomplish it. “This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.”
What is the promise underlying the command to love our enemies? It is the assurance that God is kind and merciful to the unthankful and evil (Luke 6:35, 36), which includes us. We can love our enemies because God loved us first, even though we were His enemies (Rom. 5:10). When we daily reaffirm our acceptance of His loving sacrifice for us on the cross, His self-denying love pervades our lives. The more we realize and experience the Lord’s love for us, the more His love will flow from us to others, even to our enemies.
