Love One Another as God Loves You

When Jesus was asked what commandment in the law is the greatest, he replied, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39; cf. Leviticus 19:18).

Like most of the great world religions, including those that preceded Christianity, Jesus also taught what is commonly called the "Golden Rule": "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you" (Matthew 7:12; cf. Luke 6:31); or its variant, the "Silver Rule," “Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.” Both are derived from the principle of "love your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39).¹

Before his death and resurrection, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment: "love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another" (John 13:34). As the First Letter of John proclaims, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother [or sister], he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother [and sister] whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from [God]: whoever loves God must also love his brother [and sister]" (1 John 4:20-21).

Unfortunately, we don't experience much "love" being demonstrated in the world today. Most times we have no control over what others may do. However, we do have the responsibility to express our love for God through loving others. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta reminds us, we are called to see the face of Jesus in one another, especially the poor, sick, hungry, imprisoned, and needy among us, and to reach out to them with love, dignity, respect, and compassionate care (cf. Matthew 25:31-46).

You are invited to reflect on how are you loving God today through loving your neighbors as God loves you.

1 These principles may remind one of Immanual Kant's "categorical imperative": "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."