HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR

Some people perceive the commandment about loving one’s neighbour as a new commandment that has been given to us by Yeshua and that it substitutes half of the other commandments from the “Old Testament”…

The definition of love is known to all of us from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. However, what does it really mean ‘to love’? Also, is this commandment actually new? Love is an action. It is not enough to say that you love your neighbour when you fail to demonstrate any loving actions towards him. Love requires work and sometimes it is hard work. This is exactly why YHWH* ELOHIM** gave us commandments about how we need to relate to each other in order to see our love in action. Through these commandments we are able to see the state of a man’s heart towards his neighbour, and it also gives us clear instructions regarding life situations where we must put them into application. These guidelines are still relevant to us today.

Romans 13:8 For whomever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled the Torah.

Romans 13:10 Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Every person has his or her own understanding of what it means ‘to love’ that is based on his or her upbringing, social background and personal experiences. However, YHWH shows us through the Torah how we must love, and He has also given us certain standards to help us form the right relationships with each other. While studying these commandments, one is able to discover that ‘loving your neighbour as yourself’ is not a new commandment at all: 

Leviticus 19:1 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, Yeshua did not give us a «new commandment», nor he did not replace ‘the old ones’, but rather he confirmed to us what had already been said before. John (Johanan) writes in his letters: ‘I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments (His ordinances, statutes, judgments, Law/Torah). This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it’ (2John 1:5).

Therefore, our Main commandment (singular) is that we should walk according to His commandments (plural), and by walking in these commandments of YHWH we reveal our love for our neighbor. This is exactly what Love is. Many people were taught that Yeshua replaced the ‘old’ and ‘crucial’ commandments of the Old Testament, such as ‘eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth’, with a ‘newer’, ‘kinder’ and ‘better’ commandment: ‘to turn your other cheek’. But is this really the truth? Let us see what the Torah says about it: ‘do not seek revenge or bear grudge against anyone’ (Leviticus 19:18). Would YHWH really give two commandments: ‘eye for an eye’ (Leviticus 24:20) and ‘do not seek revenge or bear grudge against anyone’ (Leviticus 19:18) if they contradicted each other? Of course not! Yeshua returned us to the proper understanding of these two important, present day commandments. ‘Eye for an eye’ is about the responsibility we have before our brother to compensate that which he lost because us. To ‘turn your other cheek’ means ‘not to seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone’, even if what they did to you was unjust. Following these commandments would be a true demonstration of love to one another.   

Yeshua confirmed what had already been said in the Torah and he has not changed any little detail of it. He revealed the true meaning of the commandments, which were distorted by the teachings of Pharisees and Sadducees. 

Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

To fulfill the meaning, in this context, to show you how it should be done.

Apart from talking about relationships between people in a society, this part of the book also includes instructions regarding certain life situations that may occur in a society centered on YHWH. Examples of some topics we will cover include house construction, real estate, a desirable political system, and even standards of living in a society of  YHWH.