Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)Jesus didn’t really say anything new when he told us to love each other. Love for God and love for each other has always been the bedrock of our relationships. Without it, everything else is worthless, just make work. God’s nature is love, and if we are in him, we are in love.
In 1 John 4, the apostle John says that God is love. His whole nature is love. He is not wrath or justice. He has these emotions, but when it comes down to it, he is love.
When we react towards others in anything but love, we do not react with the nature of God. He showed that nature again and again throughout the Bible.
His people turned from him over and over and yet he continued to love them. Even when they killed his son, he responded in love. Even when all else happens, he continues to love.
In Matthew 22, Jesus was asked what the greatest commandments were. He went to Deuteronomy 6 for the first: Love God. He went here, to Leviticus 19, for the second. Love your neighbor as yourself.
In other words, do not think of yourself first. Think of other first.
This, of course, goes against our grains. It is not normal in any life other than the God-controlled life.
Unless we react in love, what we do is worthless.
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