The documents discuss how to love God and neighbor. Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself. He taught his followers to love even their enemies and lend without expecting repayment. God's love extends to all nations. To love neighbors, one must understand Jesus fulfilled prophecies as the Messiah, explained scripture, is the risen Son of God who sends the Spirit to empower believers to share repentance and forgiveness with the world.

1. Love for…
Community
How can we love God?
Where is our Community?

4. Mark 12:29-31 ESV Jesus answered, “The most important
is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
[30] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and
with all your strength.’ [31] The second is this: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other
commandment greater than these.”

5. Luke 6:27-36 “But I say to you who hear, Love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you, [28] bless those
who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. [29] To one
who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and
from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold
your tunic either. [30] Give to everyone who begs from
you, and from one who takes away your goods do not
demand them back. [31] And as you wish that others
would do to you, do so to them.

6. [32] “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that
to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
[33] And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
[34] And if you lend to those from whom you expect to
receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to
sinners, to get back the same amount.

7. [35] But love your enemies, and do good, and lend,
expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be
great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind
to the ungrateful and the evil. [36] Be merciful, even as
your Father is merciful.

8. • Wasn’t Jesus Speaking this Ethic to Jewish People?
• Weren’t the neighbors – their Jewish brothers?
• Didn’t God want Israel in the OT to destroy the
neighbor, be circumcised and not intermarry with the
non-Jew?

9. Jesus Recovered the Ancient Ethic of God’s
Love for the Nations and Neighbors –
Israel’s Original Purpose – to Bless
Think About…
Cain and Able
Noah’s Pleas to the Nations
God’s Promise to Abram
Jonah and Nineveh

10. God Has a Heart for the Nations and Our Neighbors
Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and
turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall
worship before you.
Isaiah 2:2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the
mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as
the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above
the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

11. God Has a Heart for the Nations and Our Neighbors
Isaiah 49:6 “It is too light a thing that you should be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back
the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the
nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the
earth.”

12. Luke 24:44-49 Then he said to them, “These are my words
that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the
Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” [45] Then he
opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [46] and
said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should
suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

13. [47] and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from
Jerusalem. [48] You are witnesses of these things.
[49] And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father
upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with
power from on high.”

14. If we are going to love our neighbor, what do we need to
know about Jesus?
Jesus Christ is the Prophesied Messiah
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I
spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything
written about me in the Law of Moses and the
Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

15. If we are going to love our neighbor, what do we need to
know about Jesus?
Jesus Christ Explains Scripture
“Then he opened their minds to understand the
Scriptures…”

16. If we are going to love our neighbor, what do we need to
know about Jesus?
Jesus Christ is the Risen Son of God
“…and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ
should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

17. If we are going to love our neighbor, what do we need to
know about Jesus?
Jesus Christ is Motivated to Communicate to the World
“…and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in his name to all nations…”
A. Repentance – Action of Our Heart
B. Forgiveness – Action of God’s Heart

18. If we are going to love our neighbor, what do we need to
know about Jesus?
Jesus Christ Loved – Even His Enemies
“…beginning from Jerusalem.”

19. If we are going to love our neighbor, what do we need to
know about Jesus?
Jesus Christ Sent His Spirit to Help
You are witnesses of these things. [49] And behold, I
am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But
stay in the city until you are clothed with power from
on high.”

20. John 15:26-27 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will
send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who
proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
[27] And you also will bear witness, because you have
been with me from the beginning.

21. Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.”

22. The Ethic for Loving our Neighbor:
-Is Love… Tolerating my Neighbor?
-Is Love… Ignoring my Neighbor?
-Is Love… Always being Kind to my Neighbor?
-Is Love… Giving Truth to my Neighbor?