On the Love of God and Neighbor

A lesson for the twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost.

In the Gospel read today[1], our Savior God has settled a question of the utmost importance for all of us: what are we to do to inherit eternal life? This question was put to the Lord by a certain Jewish lawyer, who said: «What am I to do to inherit eternal life»? The Lord pointed him to the law given by God to the Jews through Moses: «What is written in the law? How do you read it? He said in reply: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your understanding, and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said to him: Your answer is right; do so, and you will live», that is, eternally. «But he, wishing to justify himself», that is, esteeming himself, like the other Pharisees, to be a righteous man who had fulfilled the law as he understood it—one-sidedly, incorrectly—said to Jesus: «And who is my neighbor?», supposing that one ought to count as a neighbor only a Jew, and not every human being.

By the parable of the man left mangled by robbers and of the merciful Samaritan, who took the most heartfelt and active part in helping him, the Lord showed that every person must be regarded as our neighbor, whoever he may be, even if he is our enemy, and especially when he is in need of help. So, then, in order to obtain eternal life, diligent fulfillment of the two chief commandments is required—to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. But since the whole law consists in these two commandments, it is absolutely necessary to explain them, so that we may know clearly what love for God and for our neighbor consists in. So, with God’s help, let us proceed to the explanation. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, that is, with your whole being: surrender yourself to God with all your powers; dedicate your entire self to Him without the slightest deficiency; do not divide yourself between God and the world; do not live—only in part for God and His law, and in part for the world, for the flesh full of many passions, for sin and the devil—but dedicate your whole self to God; be entirely God’s, entirely holy in your whole life. Following the example of the Holy One who called you (God), be holy yourselves in all your conduct[2], says the holy apostle Peter.

Let us explain this commandment by examples. Suppose you are praying to God. If you love God with all your heart, then you will pray to Him always with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind; you will never be distracted, lazy, careless, or cold in prayer; you will not give place in your heart, during prayer, to any worldly cares and anxieties: you will cast aside every worldly care, you will cast all your sorrow upon the Lord, for He cares for you, as the Apostle says. Strive to grasp the prayer, the service of God, in its fullness, in all its depth. If you love God with all your soul, then you will repent to God sincerely of your sins; you will offer Him deep repentance every day, for every day you sin much. You will repent, that is, condemn yourself for your sins with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind; you will convict yourself with utterly unsparing severity, with complete sincerity; you will offer God a full confession, the sacrifice of a whole burnt offering of your sins, so that not a single sin remains unrepented, unmourned. Thus, to love God with all your heart means to love with all your heart and all your strength His righteousness, His law, and to hate with all your heart every unrighteousness, every sin; to fulfill righteousness with all your heart and all your strength, to do good, and with all your heart and all your strength to flee evil, that is, every sin; to give no place in your heart to any sin, not for a single minute, not for a single instant; that is, not to consent to it, not to sympathize with it, not to make peace with it, but to be constantly, eternally at enmity with sin, to wage war against it, and thus to be a brave and victorious warrior of Christ our God.

Or let us take another example: suppose you are persecuted for piety, for truth, for virtue; if you love God, then you will not depart from piety, from truth, from virtue for a single minute, even if this devotion to truth should bring with it the loss of some advantages; for truth itself, or faithfulness to God and to His truth, is the greatest advantage for us, and God can reward faithfulness to His truth a hundredfold, both in this age and in the age to come. An example of this is the righteous Joseph, son of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, and many righteous people in the New Testament. Thus, to love God with all your heart means to contend for God, for His truth, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. This is how the holy fathers and holy martyrs contended for God, for His truth, especially in the struggle against heresies and schisms. This is zeal for God. Further, to love God with all your heart means to strive with all your strength to draw all people to God, to His love, to the glorifying of Him, to His eternal kingdom, so that all may know Him, love Him, and glorify Him. This, too, is zeal for God!

Having explained the first commandment, as best we could, let us now explain the second: love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love your neighbor—that is, every human being—as yourself? It means to honor another as you wish him to honor you; to consider no one a stranger, but our own—our own brother, our own member—and the Christian a member of Christ as well; to count his good, his salvation, as our own good, our own salvation; to rejoice in his well-being as in our own, and to grieve over his misfortune as over our own; to strive for his deliverance from trouble, misfortune, poverty, sin—just as I would strive for my own deliverance. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep[3], says the apostle. We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of you please his neighbor for his good, for edification[4]. Pray for one another, that you may be healed[5]. To love your neighbor as yourself means to respect him as yourself, if, indeed, he is worthy of that; not to think of him unworthily or meanly without cause for it on his part; not to bear him any ill will at all; not to envy him, but always to wish him well; to be indulgent toward his defects and weaknesses, and to cover his sins with love—just as we wish others to be indulgent toward our own defects. Bear with one another in love, says the apostle, not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult[6]. Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you[7]. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; and if he thirsts, give him drink[8], says the Old Testament Scripture. To love your neighbor as yourself also means to pray for the living and the dead, for kin and non-kin, for acquaintances and strangers, for friends and enemies—no differently than for ourselves, and to wish them as much good, as much salvation of the soul, as for ourselves. This is what the holy Church teaches in her daily prayers. To love your neighbor as yourself also means to love every person without partiality, regardless of whether he is poor or rich, good-looking or not—old or young, noble or simple, healthy or ill; useful to us or not, friend or enemy—because all are equally God’s, all are in the image of God, all are children of God, members of Christ (if they are Orthodox Christians), and all are our members: for we are all one body, one spirit[9], and one Head for all—Christ God. So let us understand the two chief commandments of the law of God in this way, and so let us strive to fulfill them, and by the grace of Christ God we shall inherit eternal life. Amen.