Do we absolutely have to love our neighbors?

Question

i mean, why is that even a commendment?

Answer 1

1st of all, I don't live my life by commandments, and 2nd of all, it really isn't realistic to actually love out neighbors, but it is important to be respectful and civil to one another.

Answer 2

The Bible speaks of 4 kinds of Love. Theres:

Storge, Philio, Agape, and Eros.

Storge is the love of your family and close friends.

Philio is brotherly love that you SHOULD have for the world at large and YES you should love the world and your neighbors. You don't have to like them, just realize that their not perfect and that they have a right to exist the same as you.

Agape is the love of the christian congregation in Christ has for each other. In other words, who could you trust more than your brothers and sisters in christ. These are the people who would die for you without thought. And if they wouldn't, are they really Christians? This is also the love Christ has for his "Bride" the church and us in it. And he loved us enough to die for us.

Eros is sexual love, including procreation and sex for other recreational purposes.

Those are the only 4 the Bible mentions.

p.s. the bible also says that God doesn't have to forgive anyone who isn't forgiving of others. (Matthew 6:14, 15; Mark 11:25; Luke 11:4)

Answer 3

Love is not really our property in the ownership sense of the word 'property'. I felt the need to say that first as in such questions there is a certain risk of conscience, self blame and in the first condition of consciousness we really don't reflect on our emotions as something we are required to control; everything 'out there' is cause for our experience and judgement.

Do we 'have' to love? Expressed this way the question has an ambiguity. I could answer 'depends on if you have love first to experience' or 'depends if you have reason from your neighbor to love them'. As to the second answer its interpretation leads one to think it is the neighbor that creates that experience, but we haven't even recognized the ambiguity for the word 'love' itself. To shorten this answer I choose one of the loves that are possible, the love that is purposed to oppose hatred and foreclosed prejudice. The love for the purpose of opposing hatred and hatreds potential to become itself is absolutely needed. I believe this to be the highest standard for human quality of mind; it is the most self informed, self reliant and intelligent. Love generally is most demanding on the person, and the most demanding, the most burdensum upon love is hatred.

So I guess my answer is yes, you must love in the way that opposes hatred. Does this mean you must force yourself to feel attracted or a sense of affection? No. Emotion must be free to be itself in our self, or we are false. The true experience for love, a good emotion for another human being or living thing or thing or existence in general must be real to be a source of guidance of what that action is to be that expresses a love of one kind or another. Learning and guided in that experience we recognize a need to develope, to gather knowledge, know how and why and sort things out.

Moral issues. Yes, it is expected that your own safety may come before sacrificing yourself, even if it is at the expense of another, but your judgement is your own.

Answer 4

cause thats what its all about, LOVE.
God is love, He loves us, and made us in His image.
Jesus said the most important of the commandments is to love God w/ all your heart and your neighbor as you would yourself.
you see if we all did this the world would work.

poverty would be extinct.
war would not exist.

etc..
etc...
it would almost be like heaven on earth.
its challenging yes, but you cant belittle its importance, and it has to start somewhere. since we have no control over others, we can only start with ourselves.

btw.. the word nieghbor is not literal, it means love mankind.
that doesnt mean hang out with them, it just means love em.

Answer 5

Knowing that you yourself have strayed from God's path, we don't have any right to hold anything against anybody. If you're a Christian, your salvation has come as a totally free gift, so, once again, you have no right to hold someone else's sin against them. If you deny God, then go ahead and rail against other people for offending what you believe is right, but you can't truly say your way is any better than theirs; unless you hold to a higher truth as your source of morals, you're making up your own, and you can't blame other people for doing the same.

Answer 6

No, not necessarily, but it's convenient to be nice with them, say hi every time you see them, just that. If you get friendly with your neighbors, they can help each other on many things. It's good for all. The key it's to be friendly.

Answer 7

Neighbor in this case doesn't mean the people you live next to, but the people that you interact with in your life. Basically it means, don't be a jerk.

Answer 8

Yes we have to love our Neighbors and by that it means every human being. the reason for this commandment is God made us all in his image and we have to love God so we have to love everyone as our brother and sister

Answer 9

We have to love everyone. There will be no hate in heaven so it gets weeded out here on earth. The haters dont make it to heaven. Learn to love the person and hate the sin. Jesus loves you.

Answer 10

Yes. It is one of our commandments "to love our neighbors as ourself"...and when Jesus was asked "Who is our neighbor"? He replied with the parable of the good samaritan. In this day and age....our neighborhood is global.

Answer 11

So we can live in a civilized and peaceful community with each other....High fences make good neighbors.