Love God, Love Neighbor

Love God, Love Neighbor

A social worker named David spent twenty years working in some of the most difficult neighborhoods in Chicago. He was asked the secret of his endurance in work that burned out most of his colleagues. He said: 'I do this because I love God. And I have learned that loving God and loving my neighbor cannot be separated. When I try to love God without the neighbor in front of me, my love becomes abstract and eventually useless. When I try to love the neighbor without God, I burn out. The two commandments hold each other up.'

Jesus' summary of the Law is not a reduction of 613 commandments to 2; it is their intensification. To love God with all the heart, soul, and mind leaves nothing back — the entirety of the person is oriented toward God. To love the neighbor as oneself is an extension of this total love outward. The second commandment, Jesus says, is 'like' the first — not merely similar, but of the same nature. They cannot be separated. The history of Christianity's failures has often involved separating them: vertical piety without horizontal justice, or social justice without the vertical grounding of love for God. Jesus insists they are one. The test of your love for God is what happens when your neighbor shows up needing something.