February 4
Love Your Neighbor
Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? ... He who does not backbite ...
nor does he take up a reproach against his friend.
Psalm 15:1, 3
The Lord's command that we love one another was not new with Jesus. For as long as the Lord has been revealing the pathway to walk with Him, love for our neighbor has been central.
While David was musing on God's qualifications for one to walk in communion with Him, the Lord spoke to him the same thing John would later reveal as central to the gospel: "for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1 John 4:20).
Walking closely with God is synonymous with walking in harmony with those around us. Can we speak poorly of our brothers and sisters and walk closely with God? Can we criticize and condemn those we've commanded to love, and yet walk closely with God? It appears not.
Walking with God seems such a mystical concept; however, He's made it very easy for us to understand. If we want to walk close to Him, we must walk agreeably with one another.
