Steve Carroll 

Galatians 5:13-15 NRSV
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Reflection:
Paul tells the Galatians that the commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, summarizes the whole law. This commandment, as many of you will know, did not originate with Paul. In Matthew 22:34-40, in response to a lawyer’s question, Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Jesus adds that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and thereby accepting and receiving God’s love, allows you to love yourself, and to love others.

The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, however, also did not originate during Jesus’s conversation with the lawyer. In Leviticus 19:18, after the people of Israel had escaped Egypt, but before they had entered the Holy Land, God spoke to Moses, telling him to command the people of Israel that they “shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” So, given that this commandment came directly from God, which Jesus says is part of the greatest commandment, and which Paul describes as summarizing the entire law, means that it deserves our attention.

Jesus was asked the question “And who is my neighbor?”, and he replied by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10:29-37. Jesus describes a man beaten by robbers and left half-dead by the side of a road. A Samaritan traveling along the road saw him. There is no suggestion in the parable that the Samaritan knew the beaten man, nor is there any suggestion that the Samaritan knew whether the beaten man was an innocent victim or instead responsible for what happened to him. The Samaritan was moved with compassion, and responded with love, treating his wounds, delivering him to an inn, and paying for his recovery. This parable tells us that neighbors we are commanded to love are not limited to those we know, such as our family and friends, or to those who are deserving. While it is easier to love people who are deserving, Jesus asks us to also love those who aren’t. 

There is really good news here! It is not always easy, but it can be easy to love our neighbors. We have so many opportunities. We can give money to those suffering from the war in Ukraine, famine in Yemen, earthquakes in Haiti, or to help resettle immigrants from Afghanistan. We can give our time and energy by providing groceries to hungry or homebound people, or painting/building homes for people in need. We can call or write people to tell them we are thinking about them.

Not only can it be easy; it can even be fun, to spontaneously love others. Many of the people Jesus blessed were not those he set out to help, but those he encountered: the woman accused of committing adultery, John 8:1-11; the woman who touched Jesus’s cloak, Mark 5:24-34; the man whose friends lowered him through the roof to get to Jesus, Luke 5:17-26. To spontaneously love others, we just need to be aware of people we encounter and respond with love. It can be as easy as a smile, or as creative as paying for the groceries, coffee or meals of someone behind you in line. Or what about letting someone slide in front of you in traffic – but surely not when you have been waiting in a long line and a cheater drives past many cars before trying to push in – but wait, did someone say something about loving people who are not deserving? 

Prayer:
Gracious Lord, Thank you for loving me. Grant me the grace to respond to opportunities to love my neighbors, whether they are friends or strangers, and whether they are deserving or undeserving. Amen.