Who is my neighbor?
When Jesus told the Pharisee that the second commandment was to love one's neighbor as oneself, he actually cited a precept that Israel had received and found in Leviticus 19:18. In that same chapter the Jews were commanded not only to consider each Israelite as their neighbor, but also other people. Verse 34 specifies: "The alien resident who resides [...] with you must come to be their natural; and you have to love him as yourself, because you became resident aliens in the land of Egypt. " Therefore, they had to deal with love even to those who were not Jews, especially to the proselytes.
On another occasion, a Jewish expert on the Law asked Jesus: "Who, truly, is my neighbor?" He answered with the following parable: a traveler from Samaria found a Jew who had been left broken and without anything by some robbers. Although he knew how much most Jews despised the Samaritans, he bandaged his wounds and left him in an inn to convalesce. What is the lesson? Love of neighbor must also encompass those of another race, country or religion (Luke 10:25, 29, 30, 33-37).
Love to our Christian brothers
What did the apostle John say about the love of our brothers?
The apostle Paul wrote: "We will work what is good for all, but especially for those who are related to us in the faith" (Galatians 6:10). We have a Christian obligation to love our family of spiritual brothers. But how much does it matter that we do it? The apostle John indicates it bluntly: "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer [...]. If someone makes the statement: 'I love God', and yet he is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, can not be loving God, whom he has not seen "(1 John 3:15, 4:20). These are very strong words, especially if we consider that Jesus Christ also called the Devil a "murderer" and a "liar" (John 8:44). May these terms never apply to us!
Above all, the Christian should treat his family with love, and particularly his spouse. So close are the bonds between husband and wife, that Paul said: "Husbands should be loving their wives as their own bodies." Then he added: "He who loves his wife loves himself" (Ephesians 5:28). And five verses later he repeated that same advice. The man who loves his wife will not imitate the Israelites of Malachi's time, who betrayed their wives (Malachi 2:14). On the contrary, he will like Christ as the congregation. Likewise, love will move the Christian to respect her husband (Ephesians 5:25, 29-33).
conclusion
In the first place Jesus, who has died for all, loving everyone, teaches us that true love must be addressed to all. Not like the love that many times we live, simply human, that has a reduced radius: family, friends, neighbors ... True love, the one that Jesus wants, does not admit of discrimination; he does not differentiate between nice and unfriendly people, for him there is no cute and ugly, big or small; for this love there is no such thing as my country or the foreign, my Church or that of the other, my religion or the other. This love loves everyone. And that is what we have to do: love everyone.
True love, moreover, takes the initiative, does not wait to be loved, as happens in general with human love: that we love those who love us. No, true love is ahead of the other, as the Father did when, while we were still sinners, and therefore not lovers, he sent his Son to save us.
who says amen?
source: https://wol.jw.org/es/wol/d/r4/lp-s/2006886
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