Command 2

In the last post I said that the first command is loving God. I know that the first commandment is to have no other God's before Him, but in Mark 12 a scribe asked Jesus what the greatest commandment is and He replied that loving God is. Then He added that one that is almost of equal importance is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Do you love people? I don't mean people that love you, I mean all people. People who you can't stand to listen to or be in the same room as. People who are liars, thieves, smell, have a different color of skin, wealthy or poor as dirt. Do you love these? It's easy to love someone that's like you or that you can get along with. What about those that are so different from you that you can't stand their sight?
As Mark 12 continues Jesus gave the parable about the good Samaritan. It's funny that it is called this, because to Jews at this time there was no such thing. They couldn't stand the half breeds. People who messed up and polluted the Jewish religion. The Samaritan people lived a culture totally different than the Jews and they hated them for it. Yet, Jesus made one of them the hero of the story. That's because God loves everyone and is not willing that anyone should parish, but all repent. (2Peter 3:9)
I have heard and have taken a verse out of context. This was pointed out to me recently. The verse is Mathew 5:45 and it says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. I've heard pastors and others say that problems come on us all. If you read the verse in context though it is saying that God loves us all and gives good things to us all. Rain is a good thing. The verse before this is saying how we need to love our enemies and those that use us.  Jesus loved his enemies. In fact, he looked at the one that was about to betray him when he was just a few feet away and called him friend. On the cross, Jesus asks the Father to forgive the people cursing Him, beating Him and sticking nails through His hands. So now, the question is this, do you love your neighbor? Do you love him as yourself?