Why we should love our neighbor

When asked the greatest commandment, Jesus responds with two, saying they are similar. Jesus said to his questioner, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Jesus quotes both of the commandments from the old testament. The first quote is the Shema Yisrael. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." The second is from Leviticus. "You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

So as Christians, little Christs, we are called to love our neighbor. Therefore, we love our neighbor because God tells us too. That's a pretty good reason, but as humans, we aren't good at doing what we should just because we are told too.

John gives us an interesting justification for loving others. " We love because he first loved us." We love our neighbor as Christ loves us only because God loved us first and moved us by the Holy Spirit so that we could love as Christ loves.

But even deeper than that, there is an intrinsic reason for loving other humans and valuing them, no matter who they are. They too, were created in the image of God.

Moses records in Genesis 1:26-27, "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

The word image in Hebrew is tselem, meaning image, likeness (of resemblance).

A key in the Genesis 1 passage is that humankind is made in the image of God, not just Christians or Jews, or specific individuals, but all humans. Regardless of who the individual is, they are made in the image, the likeness, of God. They have a resemblance of the creator of the universe.

This gives the individual value. To be made in the image of the creator places value on the creation.

For the Christian, this is the starting point of dealing with any other human being. No matter who they are, you are dealing with someone who was made in the image of God. That makes loving them the default option.

Love your neighbor, they too are made in the image of God.