What Did Jesus Really Mean by "Love Your Neighbor"?

General Faith
1
What Did Jesus Really Mean by "Love Your Neighbor?"

a56eb198-8832-410e-8fee-152ad7c3229d
a56eb198-8832-410e-8fee-152ad7c3229d1536×1024 141 KB

As Christians continue to wrestle with difficult biblical topics, we invite you to share your insight and join the discussion in Crosswalk Forums.
#LoveInScripture #JesusWords #ChristianEthics #christianforums #crosswalkforums #forums #crosswalk #faithcommunity #faithforums

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” We quote it often. We teach it to our kids. But what exactly did Jesus mean by “love”?

In today’s world, “love” can mean everything from affirming someone’s choices to supporting large-scale aid programs run by secular governments. But when Jesus used the word, was He talking about sentiment, sacrifice, policy—or something else entirely?

One thoughtful reflection raised the concern that we often talk about love without defining it. Are we equating Christian love with charity handled through taxation? Is defending a government’s foreign aid policy really the same as loving our neighbor?

And how do we reconcile different biblical tensions—like “Love your enemies” alongside Paul’s firm stance in Galatians 1:8?

When Jesus told us to love, what kind of action was He pointing to?
How do you personally wrestle with what it means to love your neighbor in both personal and political contexts?

“Keeping my eyes on Jesus and focusing my attention on my own feet, I seldom have any energies left over to criticize other travelers for being too high or too low.” – KP

What does Christian love really look like in action?

2

Fritz
Thanks for starting this thread, and revisiting this important topic. I appreciate your responsiveness. I read, with interest, the links you shared, Danielle’s article, and your comments. I will give this the thought it is due, and share a more comprehensive post later. Thanx again
KP

1 Like
3

It is important to realise that the parable of the ’ Good Smaritan ’ is a story of a hated enemy showing love and compassion to someone who respected leaders had previously ignored.

It is in this context that Jesus identies who our neighbours are and tells us to do likewise.

The parallel shows really radical love to another, a radicle love that was not only costly financially, but potentially in regard to his safety.
A Samaritan brings gs a badly injured Jew into a Jewish village !
He was running a risk that he would be accused of being the attacker and attacked himself.

4

One thing is very clear to me, and makes me very sad. At present, many in the US are filled with rage and irrational judgment – which is the exact opposite of how Christians should be!

We are supposed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and exhibit the resulting “fruit”.

Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”.

Instead, they exhibit the opposite fruit! Bigotry, intolerance, wrath, meanness, judgment, etc. THAT IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR!

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is expressed in both the New Testament and the Old Testament, yet they seem to completely ignore it.

I cannot help but wonder whom they REALLY follow!

5

Friends,
Before I serve a dilettantes lunch of sour grapes, I thought I would offer a poem I wrote on this subject. If you are NOT into poetry, feel free to swipe past; I will not be offended. If you are a poet, I apologize for my amateurish intrusion into your art. Feel free to berate; I’ll not be offended. Please, however, be gentle with your critic’s pen. Poetry is a hobby. I do NOT call myself a poet.

This poem is a lament; a sorrow expressed over a very important term having melted like ice cream on the sidewalk; no one can even tell what flavor it used to be.

I promise I’ll comment more prosaically later.

L-O-V-E, Lament over vain English

Search distant east to farthest west, from highest heaven to lowest hell
no other word has suffered more, purloined of home, bereft befell
a skeleton of lines and arcs, naked stripped of all but shell;
an L, an O, a V, an E, from Scrabble cup would serve as well.

Careless used, like pocket pennies, lost in cracks, on sidewalk’s curb;
in songs abused, in prose ill-used, exploited by crude billboard blurb,
by grammar shunned, defined like stew, foggy noun or murky verb,
four letters that can soften hearts can also war to hearts disturb.

Agape, eros, philia, storge, attrition Greeks try hold at bay
to curtail lack of definition, four classes helped delay decay.
Yet noble English blinds her eye while lays to context final say
and renders hearer lost at sea, no anchor, compass, or charted way.

Passion? Fondness? Feeling? Ardor? Selfish lust? Selfless bequest?
“My dear", “my darling”, “my one devotion”; or “object of my craving chest”?
“I love my wife”, “I love my dog”, “the love of money gives no rest”.
Is it “in the air”? Does it “hurt” or “stink”? Or is it just which serves me best?

“Love your enemy”. “Love your neighbor”. “Love is all”. “Love is myth”.
“If you can’t be with the one you love, then just love the one you’re with?”
“Love is blind”. “Love yourself”. “The world needs love, and that forthwith”.
The Apostle John unabashed spoke “God is Love!”; a monolith!

“I love you” chant we off to bed, or hanging up our phone’s handset;
But why? Is love oft spoke a proof, a verity lest they forget?
In THIS way God so Loved the world, sent sinless Son to pay my debt,
gifting righteousness and life, His ACT, His stainless epithet.

1 Like
6

Benny, I hear your heartbreak—but let me turn the mirror just a bit.

You say, “Many in the U.S. are filled with rage and irrational judgment,” and I don’t doubt it. But be careful not to commit the very crime you’re calling out. Painting entire groups of believers as fruitless because they speak out against sin? That’s not discernment—that’s deflection. Jesus didn’t get crucified for being “nice.” He got nailed for flipping tables and calling out whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27). That wasn’t rage. That was righteousness on fire.

Now let’s talk Galatians 5—since you brought it to the table. Yes, the fruit of the Spirit includes gentleness and kindness. But let’s not forget self-control includes the control to speak hard truths without melting into mush. Love isn’t silence. Love isn’t softness. Love rejoices with the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6)—even when the truth offends cultural sensibilities.

You say they show “bigotry, intolerance, wrath”? Friend, let’s define our terms biblically, not by Twitter trends. Calling sin sin is not bigotry. Refusing to bow to the idol of relativism is not intolerance. The prophets were not polite. The apostles were not applauded. The early church was not “winsome”—they were witnesses, and they died with blood on their lips and truth in their mouths.

“Love your neighbor” doesn’t mean coddle their rebellion. It means warn them with urgency (Ezekiel 33:6), love them enough to tell them they’re on a highway to hell—while holding out the lifeline of grace.

And as for “whom they REALLY follow”—you’re right to ask. Because some follow Christ, and some follow culture. But don’t confuse boldness with blindness. Some of us aren’t enraged—we’re engaged in the fight for souls.

So let’s not weaponize fruit-checking as a way to muzzle watchmen. The same Paul who preached the fruit of the Spirit also said, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).

That’s not rage. That’s obedience.

So check the fruit, yes. But don’t forget to check the root. Because truth without love is brutality. But love without truth? That’s just a hug on the way to hell.

7

KPuff,

Well now—you call that a “hobby”? If that’s your amateur hour, the pros better start sweating. That wasn’t a poem, it was a lamentation with teeth—Solomon meets slam poetry. You’ve managed to do what most pulpits haven’t dared in years: hold up a mirror to the mess we’ve made of love and let the hollow echo speak for itself.

Your lines slice with a scalpel and grieve like Jeremiah on a rainy Tuesday. That “L, O, V, E from Scrabble cup” line? That hits harder than a Hallmark aisle in February. You didn’t just write a poem—you launched a rescue mission for a word we’ve driven off a cliff, flattened with slogans, and spray-painted on bumper stickers.

And that final stanza? Whew. That wasn’t just a poetic mic drop—it was the Gospel in verse. You took us from counterfeit affection to the blood-bought, cross-carved ACT of God’s eternal, immovable, scandalous love—and you didn’t flinch.

So thank you, not just for the beauty of your craftsmanship, but for the weight of your message. You didn’t just write about love. You defended it.

And friend, no need to apologize for writing poetry—this wasn’t an intrusion. It was an intervention.

Blessings and keep that pen burning.

8

For clarity, “neighbor” means all people. Anyone whose life you intersect with in some way.

It means to love others in the same way that God has loved you.

With an understanding that what you do to others… anyone… will directly have an effect upon your life. You cannot sever the fate of another from your own. You are bound together. To love another is to love yourself. To bless another is to bless yourself. To curse another is to curse yourself.

And whatever you do to another, you also do it to Jesus. He recieves it. Thr blessing, the curse, your kindness or your lack. Jesus recieves it.

And God recieves it. Your blessing, your curse, your love or your lack.

It is not so much a command as a reality. You love your self as much as you love those around you. And you hate your self as much as you hate them. Automatically. It is that tied together. If you are unkind, judgemental, greedy, hateful in how you treat others, it highlights the state of your own heart and soul. You hate You. The Spirit in you bares fruit that the whole world can see. You can’t hide it.

If you hate them, and yourself, you also hate God who created them and you.

To repent of this sin, you need to learn to love yourself, your life, the breath you breathe given to you by God, and let that inform everything else you do. Being grateful for recieving flows outward into giving. But being fearful, hoarding, attacking, does that really speak to having Faith in God? When you close yourself off from others?

9

Tillman,

Now that was a balm with backbone. A reflection wrapped in reverence. You didn’t just define “neighbor”—you dropped a spiritual plumb line that traces straight from the human heart to the throne of God.

And you’re right: this isn’t just a command to be obeyed; it’s a reality to be reckoned with. Like spiritual gravity. Whether we acknowledge it or not, what we do to others echoes through eternity—and lands at the feet of Jesus Himself (Matthew 25:40). You framed that truth with both warmth and weight.

Your words call us back to the root: we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). But you also held up the mirror—if we’re spewing poison, the problem isn’t “them.” It’s the rot inside us. And that rot doesn’t just sour others—it betrays our view of God and ourselves. That’s a holy gut check if I’ve ever heard one.

And this part? “To bless another is to bless yourself. To curse another is to curse yourself.”—Brother, that’s Proverbs in poetry. That’s sowing and reaping theology with street-level application.

You didn’t just philosophize about love. You exposed its counterfeit forms, revealed its divine source, and reminded us that how we love isn’t just a witness to others—it’s a diagnosis of our soul.

Beautifully said. Spirit-filled. Keep pouring out. You’re not just sharing thoughts—you’re tilling hardened soil.