Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. This is God's command to us. On this hang all the law and prophets. That is a pretty good condensation of what the Bible has to say. When a religious leader asked Jesus who then is my neighbor, Jesus shared the story that we know as "The Good Samaritan." (Luke 10:25-37)
That story gives a pretty good picture of what it means to love our neighbor and who our neighbor is. Our neighbor is that person that is before us and is in need. It may be someone that we wouldn't normally associate with. Reaching out to them may mean humbling ourselves. It may be inconvenient and costly to us.
Coming to this earth and taking on the form of a human being was something Jesus humbled Himself to do. The beating and humiliation that Jesus went through and dying on the cross was rather inconvenient and costly. Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for each human being. It was His love for you and I that caused Him to do those things. Jesus delighted to do this. It wasn't something He did grudgingly.
If we truly want to be like Jesus, that same sacrificial love must be manifest through our lives as well.That kind of love is not something we can find within ourselves. It is a love that comes from God and is manifest through us as we submit to Him. Lord make me a vessel of Your love poured out on those I come in contact with today.
Philippians 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Psalm 40:6-8 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. 9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
