Neighborly Love not Sneetches

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” [1]

The Lord’s commandments are based on divine love. A love that provides an environment of mutual respect and mutual goodwill towards one another! When carried out, His commandments do bring fullness of joy. To “love one another” is to experience the immense value God places on each one of us. A love so deep that it may move a person to give up his or her life for the well-being of another.

In the Declaration of Independence, we have the following words:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

There was to be no elite class of people that ruled by force, but the rather, all people were to be considered equal because God created each one. The government gained its power and authority from “we the people” or by consent of the governed. A government by consent rather than by force! It is amazing that God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, respects the free will of people. He could obviously force people to bow to Him but does not. His Son, Jesus Christ, came to us as one who serves. One who laid down His life for us!

As a child, I learned a good lesson from Dr. Suess’s book the “The Sneetches.” The book begins with Star-bellied Sneetches proclaiming themselves superior to Plain-bellied Sneetches. A shrewd entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean sees a way to make money from their strife with one another. One day, he convinces everyone that it is better to be a Plain-bellied Sneetch and he has a machine to remove the stars from bellies. So, the Stars pay to have their stars removed. Then, he convinces them it is better to have stars. They pay to have the stars reinstalled. At the end of the story, McBean rides out of town with a wagon full of money. After he fled with their money, and their economy was destroyed, they realized that he used their competitive natures to rob them. They had no money, but at least they started having a good relationship with each other.

“Dear Heavenly Father, please help us to uphold Your commandments and love one another. We need Your fullness of joy. We need to become good neighbors once again. Please help us. In the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.”

[1] John 15:10-13