Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

Thursday February 5, 2026

Love your neighbor as yourself. This is a common phrase that we heard repeatedly, or have even said ourselves, and it is true.  This is one of God’s commands to us.  Yet this is only part of God’s instructions.  In reading through the Bible, we come across familiar passages, and we can see them in the context of other, sometimes more detailed, instructions.  Remember that even Satan himself uses portions of God’s words to draw us away from God or confuse our understanding of how God would have us to behave.  The word “love” for example has taken on a lot of different meetings and is usually associated with just feelings and emotions.  Instead, God is love and, therefore, defines love.  A good definition of love is found in 1 Corinthians 13.  In our reading today, the context of loving our neighbor also instructs us not to harbor hatred against our brother (Leviticus 19:17).  Further, we are instructed to rebuke our neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him (v.17).  When you see a neighbor doing wrong, or you feel the neighbor has wronged you, the instructions are to rebuke him directly.  We are not to talk about them to others.  No, we are to go to them directly.  John Trapp (commentator) says this about rebuking the neighbor, “Neither is this any argument of hatred, but an office of love. Friends, as bees, are killed with the honey of flattery, but quickened with the vinegar of reproof. The eagle, though she loveth her young ones dearly, yet she pricketh and beateth them out of the nest…. To withstand evil in thy brother, is the best way to do him good, and thyself too.”  Next, we are instructed not to take revenge or bear a grudge against them.  One cannot say they are loving their neighbor as themselves, as God has instructed, if they harbor grudge or seek revenge.  The context helps us to ensure the right interpretation and the right application of the instructions.  So, let us love our neighbors as ourselves.  Oh, by the way, who is our neighbor?  Seek God’s Word for the answer.