Jesus Us To Love Others

One important objective for living a Christian life, Jesus summarizes in this verse from Matthew’s Gospel:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. …You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37, 39).

Jesus Life as Example

Jesus’ whole life was an example of how one loves God and neighbor with their entire being. The Ten Commandments lay the foundation for how we are to love God and neighbor. But Jesus implores us to go even further. Michel Remery, in Tweeting with God, explains that Jesus “also gave us the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) and a sermon about the Last Judgment, when he will say to us: ‘What you did or refused to do for others, you did or refused to do for me’ (Matthew 25:31-46). The Church has summed up the charity asked of us by Jesus in the Works of Mercy.”

The Works of Mercy, therefore, are examples of how we are to love our neighbor as our Lord has called each of us to do. St. John tells us, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This commandment we have from him — whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21).