How Do I Love My Neighbor? Proverbs 3:27-35
By Jacob Tanner - Posted at Place for Truth:
Scripture calls upon us to love our neighbors as ourselves. But how do we love our neighbors?I was recently talking with someone about the Christian life and made the comment, “It seems like it’s a lot easier to study theology than it is to practice theology.” I was specifically lamenting the fall of so many gifted and learned theologians and pastors into heinous, disqualifying sin. I know for a fact that they spent a great deal of time in their studies, pouring over passages of Scripture. They read massive commentaries and devoted themselves to the study of great theological works of literature—both from antiquity and modernity. They had creeds and confessions memorized and could properly formulate everything from the doctrine of the hypostatic union to divine simplicity to supralapsarianism and so forth.
But when it came to their practice, there was a disconnect between their knowledge and their actions. It was as though they had somehow missed making the connection between the head and those eighteen inches leading down to the heart.
Let this be a reminder to us, then, that we never truly grow beyond needing to be reminded of the gospel because (to paraphrase Martin Luther) we are so prone to forgetting it. But at the same time, as important as our theological studies are (and make no mistake: they are essential to a proper walk with Christ), it is equally important to make sure that we obey the Word of God and live as God has called us to. One of the simplest ways to do this, then, is to ask the question: Are we keeping the two greatest commandments? When Jesus was asked what they were, He responded: ...
