Love Thy Neighbor AS THYSELF

While riding on the NYC Metro the other day, I saw ads blanketing half of a metro car, and what few words the ads included, combined with the images that were present, made for a disgusting concept.  It was as if the ad twisted God's Word to promote something promiscuous.  I, for one, won't be watching to see if the show is as backwards as the metro ads.  Let's not talk about the TV show, "GCB," what GCB stands for, or the book that it's based on. Instead, let's talk about the words, "Love Thy Neighbor," which are on the ad.

It is true that on more than one occasion, Christ did say, "Love thy neighbor," but that wasn't ever the end of the sentence. Once, the Sadducees (rivals of the Pharisees) tried to ask Jesus a question that was based on a premise that they themselves didn't believe. Jesus silenced them and gave them a little lesson from God's Word. Now, let's take a look at what follows in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, verses 34-40. Here it is in the ESV:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”