Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

• Matthew 22:37-40 (MSG)

The simple answer to the question of what Jesus said about loving your neighbor is to read the verses above. But we encourage you to hang out with this passage for a few moments more before moving on because it has some amazing implications. 

What we need to understand about loving our neighbors according to Jesus

The verses above are taken out of context. To better understand it, we need to zoom out a little and get an idea of the bigger picture of what Jesus is saying. 

Jesus presents this lesson as a response to a question by a student of God’s Law. The student was attempting to trip Jesus up by forcing Him to claim that one law is more important than the other, but Jesus’ response is outside the box. Rather than picking a single law that is greater than the others, He bundles them all up under two: to love God and to love your neighbors as you love yourself. He goes on to make the bold statement that “everything in God’s Law and the Prophets” hangs from them. 

This is a powerful, powerful statement when you think about it. Jesus is telling us that it should not be our priority to try to be perfect in the Law but to simply follow in His example and try to love God and love other people as much as we can. If we can do these two things, everything else in the Laws and Prophets follows.

This trips some people up, because how can simply loving God and loving others fulfil the Law? After all, isn’t following the Law a way of loving God? Perhaps it can be. But perhaps, like Jesus, we too need to think a bit outside the box. Maybe following these two commandments can fulfill everything from the Law and the Prophets because it's not the laws or teachings themselves that are central but rather the spirit of their meaning. Perhaps by loving God and loving others as much as we can, we live in the spirit of everything the Law and Prophets were guiding us toward all along. It’s no longer about rules; it’s about simply living in Christ’s example.

Centerpoint Church is ready to walk with you on your faith journey

At Centerpoint, our community believes in purpose and passion, and we would love to walk with you on your journey in finding yours. We are currently going through a new sermon series titled “To Hell With Normal.” It’s all about redefining what we consider normal in life as we seek to make our lives more like the way Jesus would have them to be. 

Do you want to grow in your faith, or are you simply curious about who this Jesus guy is? You’re not alone. We encourage you to listen to our series online and welcome you to come to one of our Sunday morning services in Valrico, Florida.