Luke 10: 25-29 (TPT) Just then a religious scholar stood before Jesus in order to test his doctrines. He posed this question: “Teacher, what requirement must I fulfill if I want to live forever in heaven?” Jesus replied, “What does Moses teach us? What do you read in the Law?” The religious scholar answered, “It states, ‘You must love the Lord God with all your heart, all your passion, all your energy, and your every thought. And you must love your neighbor as well as you love yourself.’” Jesus said, “That is correct. Now go and do exactly that and you will live.”
Wanting to justify himself, he questioned Jesus further, saying, “What do you mean by ‘my neighbor’?”
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Any excuse to not be the kind of neighbor Christ has called us to be!
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Justify our reservation to loving others with excuses of prejudice, inadequacy and pride.
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Prejudice: (prejudging) preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. – Selective neighborliness
But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law.James 2:9 NLT
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1. Recognize our prejudices
1 John 3:18 MSG My dear children, lets not just talk about love; lets practice real love.
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2. Seek to understand others
Romans 12:9 – Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.
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3. Love those different from you
For most humans, the threshold is whether you are like them or not. But for Christ, the threshold is whether you will acknowledge you “need” him or not…
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
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Prejudice isn’t just the present of hatred. It’s the lack of love.
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Being a Christian is loving the person in front of you the way Jesus first loved the soul inside of you.