“The second is this:  Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Mark 12:31a   

I am told that I have been in church since I was one week old.  It would be safe to say that I have not missed too many Sunday services in my life, midweek services, or special events.  And when revival was happening, you could count on it that we would be there every night. 

Throughout the years, I have heard many teachings and sermons on the Ten Commandments.  And of course, I have watched Charlton Heston playing Moses too many times to count and I still do.  God gave the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel to give them guidelines to live by.  The only lifestyle that they knew was living in bondage in Egypt.  They were told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.  The Children of Israel had only heard about God.  They had no relationship with God until they saw the signs He performed and how He used Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh.

God met with Moses on Mt. Sinai so that he in turn could teach the Children of Israel how to live their lives loving and honoring God; and, to teach them to live in harmony with one another.

We read in Matthew and Mark that one of the Pharisees wanted to test Jesus with this question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’”  It was important to the Pharisees because they had classified over 600 laws from the most important to the least.

Jesus answered the Pharisee in verse 30 that first, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Then in verse 31, Jesus says that the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. He continues to say that there is no commandment greater than these.

The Pharisees were pleased with Jesus’ answer because He summed up all of the commandments into just two.  And even though the question was a test, Jesus dropped the microphone on the Pharisees.  Jesus saw beyond the laws and knew that if people lived out these two commandments then all of the other laws would take care of itself.  Jesus said that on these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.

My parents always opened our home for ministers to eat with us and if necessary, they were welcome to stay in our home.  There was never a question about whether their color or culture would decide if they could stay or not.  Our home was open to all.  All I have ever known is growing up in a church that worshiped with people from all over the world.   I have never known anything different.

The sad thing is that 2,000 years later, there are people that still choose to hate anyone that is different than themselves, and living in harmony and loving all people is still an issue today.  I’ll be honest—I don’t have any deep philosophical words to share to remedy the division and racism that exists in our society.  I believe that it is a sin problem and until people give their hearts to Jesus, their actions will never change. 

So, what do we do?  We as Christians must lead the charge in reconciliation.  The gospel message of the cross and the example of Jesus’ love for all of mankind must be evident in our lives.  The change must first begin in our hearts.  Our desire must be to choose each day to love God and to love people as we love ourselves. 

Will society change overnight?  No, it will take time.  However, if we will love God and love people as Jesus loves, love our neighbors as ourselves, we will begin to see a change – one step at a time.

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