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The Amish Voice
Conference Call Schedule
is listed on page 7!
I was recently asked to speak on the
subject, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
After studying and doing my research, I
was very much amazed at what I found.
For instance, consider that:
Eight times in the Bible we are
commanded to
love thy neighbor
as thyself
.
The phrase,
love thy neighbor as
thyself,
is one of the most repeated
commands in the Bible.
Jesus said: to love God and your
neighbor as yourself
is
more than
all whole burnt offerings and
sacrifices.
—Mark 12:33
Why was it so important for God to
continually remind us throughout
Scripture to love our neighbor as much as
we do ourselves? I think we probably all
know the answer to that. It doesn’t come
naturally for us, and it’s hard! At times,
it’s very, very hard! In fact, loving our
neighbor as our self is so difficult at
times, and beyond our own ability, that
we cannot do it on our own. It’s
impossible! We have to know a higher
power—working within and through
us—Jesus Christ.
Let’s go ahead and read the eight
Scripture passages about loving our
neighbor as our self, and then I would
like to make a few comments. The first
one is found in the Old Testament. The
last seven are found in the New
Testament.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any
grudge against the children of thy
people, but
thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself
: I am the
LORD
. —Leviticus 19:18
Honour thy father and thy mother:
and,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself
. —
Matthew 19:19
In Mathew 22:35-40, the Bible says
a lawyer walked up to Jesus and
asked Him a question, tempting
Him:
“Master, which is the great
commandment in the law?
Jesus
answered him, saying,
Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it,
Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself
.
Jesus concludes by saying:
On these
two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets.
In Mark 12:28-31,
we are told that
one of the scribes asked Jesus,
“Which is the first commandment of
all?”
Jesus responded by saying:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment. And the second is
like, namely this,
Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself
. There is
none other commandment greater
than these.
Several verses later, v-33, the scribe
responded with:
“And to love Him
with all the heart, and with all the
Continued on Page 8
Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself
—Joe Keim