Love Your Neighbour as Yourself

When Jesus was asked by an expert in the Jewish law what the greatest commandment was, His reply was succinct and clear:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40).

In other words, if we want to live in the way that God desires for us, to live the most fruitful life possible, then we are called to love God with all we have, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It’s a massively tall order, and we’re going to need help. Jesus knew that. By giving us His Spirit to live within us, that help is at hand.

But that got me thinking. What does it mean to love my neighbour as myself? In 1 Samuel 18:1 this same sentiment is set before us, demonstrated in the way Jonathan loved David, ‘he loved him as himself!’ 

This is especially astonishing given the context of kingly succession. In those days, when a king died, it was the standard practice for their oldest son to inherit the throne; just as Prince William is first in line to inherit the British throne from his father, King Charles.

However, in the days of Kings Saul and David, if someone else assumed the throne (from outside the kingly bloodline), it was common practice to exterminate anyone from the original line who might challenge the accession. In Jonathan’s case, he was the next in line to come to the throne if anything happened to his father, King Saul. But David became King instead. Both Jonathan and David act in ways that are very unusual.

Regarding Jonathan, rather than doing all he could to protect the ‘rightful’ position he ‘should’ have had, he recognised that God had chosen David to succeed his father, and he seems to have completely and unreservedly accepted this. 1 Samuel 18:4 seems to suggest that Jonathan was entrusting David with the garments of state that were legally his. He was, in effect, submitting to David.

From this we can see that Jonathan’s way of ‘loving David as himself’ meant making David a priority over and above himself. This doesn’t mean that Jonathan didn’t love himself, far from it, but it did mean giving up his own rights in favour of David.

Later, we see David ‘loving Jonathan as himself’ when he steps away from the behaviour expected of a new king which would be to eliminate everyone in Jonathan’s family line. Rather, he seeks out Jonathan’s one remaining son and blesses him:

“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table” (2 Samuel 9:7).

The call of Jesus, even today, to all those who are called to inherit His Kingdom, is to live this out by voluntarily loving those around us in whatever way we can.

This will look different in each of our everyday lives because we are each unique. But, in Jesus’ famous parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), we hear the challenge for us to love in practical ways whomever God puts in our path, even if they might be considered an enemy. We’re definitely going to need help!