Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

It’s endlessly fascinating and infuriating to me that all the teachings of Jesus himself, the central figure of Christianity, are summed up (in his own words!) in these two commandments: love God and love others.

However.

I don’t think you have to look far at all these days to see that there is little love left for God or others. Most of the time, everyone is (quite understandably, I admit) looking out for themselves. Times are tough, and things do not look like they will be getting better any time soon. Global conflict is on a significant rise, division amongst people groups is becoming threatening and violent, the suffering of the masses is growing and at times it seems like all hope is truly lost.

What to do?

The question is so simple and yet so overwhelming. Most of the time people immediately ask ‘what can I do?’ and find that there is almost nothing they can do that will help people in the long-term.

Unfortunately, I don’t have all the answers. I mean, no one does. But knowing what to do and actually doing it is two separate things, which people rarely do anyway. I mean, how many times have scientists, doctors, psychologists, historians, and analysts told us that if we change X we will see Y result which is exponentially better than the current situation—and then watched the advice be argued by politicians or simply forgotten as time wears on?

It’s a vicious and frustrating cycle which we seem trapped in, and until more people are willing to wake up and choose differently, we won’t see change.

But change starts small, and it takes time to develop. Most importantly, change requires intention and consistency, and these are the two things that I want to discuss with regard to this verse.

If this verse is Jesus summing up ‘all the Law and the Prophets’ (verse 40), then Christians are failing massively. You see, loving God and loving his creation are two intrinsically linked things. You cannot truly love God without caring for his people and the world he created for us.

Recently I found a book on ‘Christian politics’ at a thrift store and as it was about 150pages and only 20c I thought I’d give it a read. Unfortunately, the more I read the more horrified I became. The book was written in the 90s by an American pastor who was clearly still in the grips of the terror of the Cold War. Now, hindsight is 20/20, so I knew that the Soviet Union would actually disband in the same year of the books publication, but this guy didn’t. Unfortunately, he also didn’t seem to understand most of the basic tenets of political theory or international relations (which I study). His definitions and explanations were consistently wrong or dramatised without adequate consideration, and he often twisted words and conflated them with ideas that were not necessarily exclusive. Altogether, it was a book filled with bad political analysis, incorrect explanations and dangerous ideas that manipulated the words of the Bible (primarily from the Old Testament when Christianity should focus more on the new covenant that Jesus brought) into a horrible and utterly loveless worldview.

To be perfectly honest however, it seemed like a literal playbook for how many modern Evangelical American Christians think and act, so it had some use in that sense. This pastor did actually mention the verse above, about loving God and loving others, but he assured his readers that loving God was paramount, thus loving people was only a nice add-on. Yet, loving God and loving people cannot be separated as this man argued. To love God means to love his people because he loves them.

Likewise, you cannot truly love people or creation without understanding God’s great love, mercy, and grace. This is clearer every single day as people try and fail to navigate through a severely broken world. Without understanding that all people are sinners and require grace and forgiveness, we are quick to judge and hate on others. Cancel culture rules and falling from favour results in abusive messages and hate campaigns. Learning that many female celebrities received death threats, rape threats, and even messages to kill themselves was horrifying to me—what could possibly cause anyone to speak to another person like that?

Community has fallen apart in recent years, families have broken apart and divorce rates are higher than ever no matter the demographic. Gender and sexual based violence is prevalent around the world, in the ‘first’ ‘second’ and ‘third’ worlds. Domestic violence is the number one killer of women around the world, especially pregnant women. I will also mention the male loneliness epidemic because it is resulting in a rapid increase of incels who are becoming increasingly violent and destructive, though this ‘epidemic’ is often blamed on women, and women are the ones expected to be the ones to make this change which I think is utterly ridiculous and counterintuitive. Men, you are welcome to start trying to help each other at any moment now and stop blaming women for problems you have created.

I don’t even want to get started on the whole ‘rotting in bed’ movement which people seem to prefer over having fun or relationships. If you want to read a really great piece on why this is so destructive, please read The Mainstreaming of Loserdom by Tell the Bees on Substack.

We need to be able to love each other again, but what does that mean?

Well, look at Jesus’ example. He consistently spoke to sinners, the sick, the hungry, the poor, the hopeless, the lame, the blind. He forgave an adulterous woman, invited tax collectors (who were considered the worst of the worst at the time), spoke with and even healed people for Roman centurions (the oppressive force of the time), elevated women and called out hypocrisy.

Jesus consistently subverted expectations and found ways to restore health, hope, faith, and love to God’s people. And we are called to do the same.

Verses

Matthew 24:12 ‘Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others.’

Jesus warned us long ago that evil exists, and that its spread will cause us to stop loving others. This is certainly the case around the world today, and part of the reason for writing this post. As such, we must be on guard and prepare to fight the spread of evil, and our own apathy. Instead of giving in or deciding that things are too difficult, we must put in the work every day to love each other.

John 15:13 ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Jesus calls us to live sacrificially for each other, even going so far as to lay down our life for our friends. We may not all live in situations like this but there are other ways to live sacrificially, such as giving up our time, energy, money, homes and attention to those who need it. Volunteering, donating money, sharing a meal with someone, listening to those who need a shoulder to cry on are not bad things, though social media might tell you otherwise. It’s not toxic to vent about something that is upsetting to you, or causing you pain. You aren’t weak for needing a hand every now and then, and giving your time and money to those who are less fortunate than you can only help!

John 3:16-17 ‘For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.’

These are easily some of the most famous verses in the Bible, and ones that Christians will often share today. Following from the previous verse, we can see that Jesus performed the ultimate act of love by dying for us.

However, if we look at the second part of this verse, you can see that God sent Jesus ‘not to judge the world, but to save the world’. Jesus did not come here to condemn you or anyone else, so Christians should not try to do that either. Historically, the church has been terrible at that, I agree. But that does not excuse us from working to do better in the future! Instead of judging those around us or forcing them to live and act a certain way, we must live amongst them sacrificially, offering up our whole lives for others so that they may know God’s love through us.

1 Corinthians 16:14 ‘Let all that you do be in love.’

Let all that you do be in love is a pretty tall order, and invites us to really think about what we are doing, and how we are doing it. Begrudgingly helping someone out is not exactly showing love. Yelling at someone in frustration is not showing love. Ignoring someone to punish them is not showing love.

In this era of (don’t be toxic and being independent, we must strive to live differently. Women historically have been taught to do this far more and to shut up and take it but that is not what is being called for here at all. God wants us all to show love to others in everything we do. That includes men, that includes women. There are many conversations to be had around setting strong boundaries which will enable us to show love, but the humility to take that step back and admit that we have all got it wrong in the past is important too. Then, we can start moving forward more effectively.

Romans 12:10 ‘Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.’

Whew, loving everyone with brotherly affection might not be so easy nowadays, as so many people grow up in broken homes and don’t understand what that might mean. However, this is a lovely picture which I think we can learn much from. ‘Brotherly affection’ brings to mind a relationship of a casual sort of intimacy—knowing someone well, caring for them without being asked while also having fun.

Philippians 2:3-4 ‘Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.’

Just as we should do everything in love, nothing should come from selfish ambition or deceit. This is not to say we cannot be ambitious, but that it should stem from humility and a desire to help the interests of others.

This can be applied in a smaller sense to the communities in which we live, and to the world we live in at large. It baffles me to hear how many ‘Christians’ advocate for stronger border protections or less housing support or banning reproductive care without providing alternate ways to help people. How can that be acting in the interests of others?

Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭2‬ ‘Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.’

Make allowance for each other’s faults. I can’t think of too many Christian examples of that, which is a genuine shame. We are called to let love overtake sin, not let our love be conditional because of sin. We are all sinners, and fallen short of the glory of God and the laws he has given to us (Romans 3:23), so we must not judge.

Sermon on the Mount: Matthew Chapters 5-7

This is one of the most famous and consistently progressive messages in history. At the time, people would have been scratching their heads in the exact same way as they would now.

Here are some brief highlights, though this list is in no way comprehensive:

• The meek are blessed and will inherit the earth (Matt 5:3)
• If you set aside any of the Bible’s commands and teach others to do so as well, you will be called least in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:19)
• Don’t murder (Matt 5:21)
• Don’t even be angry with your sister or brother, nor should you speak ill about any other (Matt 5:22)
• Even looking at someone with lust is committing adultery (Matt 5:28)
  • If your eye causes you to stumble or look with lust or jealous, ‘gouge it out and throw it away’ (Matt 5:29) ← Jesus was not messing around
• Rather than living by ‘an eye for an eye’, turn your cheek if someone slaps you, give them your shirt too if someone asks for your coat, walk an extra mile with them and never turn away someone who wants to borrow from you (Matt 5:38-42)
• ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matt 5:44)
• When you give to the needy (not if!), do it quietly and without expecting fanfare or reward (Matt 6:2)
• Guard your eyes and look to what is good, just, and loving for ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. ****But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.’ (Matt 6:22-23)
• The scale with which you judge others will be used to judge you too. (Matt 7:2)
• Don’t be hypocritical by noticing the speck in your brothers eye and not the plank in your own – that is, don’t call out others behaviour when you are doing other things incorrectly. (Matt 7:3)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

This is perhaps the most important passage in the Bible about love, and is one that I believe everyone should consider in their lives. It is a little poetic, but the overall message is integral.

Love is patient, kind, humble and without envy. It honours others, helps them, and remains calm and relentless. Love is found in truth, it always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.

So, whether you are Christian, curious, or not at all, then I invite you to consider how you can show more love to the people around you, and to the world at large. In this modern era of internet connection across timezones and borders, and in a world of incredible diversity but also incredible suffering, how can you do more to show love to your neighbours?