Love Your Neighbor
It's Your Destiny!

            Jesus was asked about many things during his ministry but one, the question, by a lawyer with the power controlling the society he lived in, stands above all.  This is the description of that encounter:
♦  "But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)
            Here, we get a clear description of the priority of his ministry; one he proved throughout his life by his actions and his words.  The point he made about it being the basis for all the laws and all the prophecies, also, adds great weight to importance of that concept.  He also clearly stated that one could not love God without loving mankind:
♦  "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." (I John 4: 20-21)
            By extension, and based in the clear logic contained in the way he phrased this reality, it can easily be concluded that loving your neighbor is loving God.  And, it makes no difference if the person's conduct warranted that love:
♦  "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?" (Matthew 5:43- 47)
            This reality shows the claim that only those who believe in Jesus, live perfect lives, follow specific ritual, or adhere to certain rules, will be loved by God, is completely wrong.  How could Jesus not love those that curse him, hate him, despitefully use him, and persecute him, when he commanded those that followed him to do so?  And, that love should be as strong as the love one feels for oneself:
♦  "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12)
            To add to the contradiction that only those in the Christian religion or in a specific denomination of that religion can be loved by God, we present this comparison of that belief as presented in the Bible to the beliefs expressed by other world religions:

Christianity
♦  "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12)
♦  "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Luke 6:31)
"Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 19:19)

Confucianism
♦  "Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. " (Analects 12:2)
♦  "Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.'" (Doctrine of the Mean 13.3)
♦  "Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence." (Mencius VII.A.4)

Buddhism
♦  "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." (Udana-Varga 5,1)

Hinduism
♦  "This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you." (Mahabharata 5,1517)
♦  "One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself." (Mencius Vii.A.4 )

Islam
♦  "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." (Number 13 of Imam "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths)

Judaism
♦  "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary." (Talmud, Shabbat 3id)

Taoism
♦  "Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss." (Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien)

Zoroastrianism
♦  "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself." (Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5)

Bahá'í World Faith
♦  "Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not." "Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself." (Baha'u'llah)
♦  "And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself." (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf)

Ancient Egyptian
♦  "Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do." (The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant)

Native American Spirituality 
♦  "Respect for all life is the foundation." (The Great Law of Peace)
♦  "All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One" (Black Elk)

            These are only a few examples of this concept found in just a few of the world's, seemingly, very diverse religions.  It is, therefore, safe to say that the majority of the world's people know this concept.  And, yet, with love for others being a prime directive worldwide; we find virtually nothing resembling this essential principle, either guiding, or even slightly impacting, any major agenda globally. 
            Perhaps, the concept of loving your neighbor being absent from the world is, not only, the reason for it's headlong rush into self-destruction, but clear evidence of an evil force in control of that race toward global suicide.  This will not stop unless, and until, mankind realizes that the direct connection between loving God and the necessity of loving one's neighbor is not, just an edict, but a strong indication of the true destiny and future of all mankind.  That destiny is found in three simple words spoken by Jesus, but completely ignored and deeply hidden from the mind of man. 

"Ye are gods"
(John 10:34)

To learn how these words are the key to why loving others is so important,
please read our research on mankind’s destiny:

The Incredible Gospel of Jesus