Day 2
To Do-ers List: Love Others
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
Since we started our series with God’s Greatest Commandment: Love God, it is fitting that we move on to His second greatest commandment: to love others as we love ourselves. Ouch! That is a tall order. In my opinion, it is easier to love God than to love other people. Other people can be annoying. They can let us down. And quite often they don’t love us back. How can we love somebody who does not love us? How can we love others?
Fortunately, loving others is a choice we make, which does not depend on their attitude towards us.
Tweet ThisIdentifying others.
Today’s verse uses the word neighbors. Love my neighbors … I don’t even know some of my neighbors. In the Greek, others/neighbors transliterates as plesion, which means “neighbor, friend, any member of the Hebrew nation and commonwealth; according to Christ, any other man irrespective of nation or religion with whom we live or whom we chance to meet.” Did you notice the spatial/geographical progression of the definition? Neighbor … friends … Americans … any person in the world. So others refers to everybody in the whole world. Wow! While it is impossible for me to tangibly love everyone, I can love others whom I chance to meet.
Loving others as you love yourself.
How do I love me, let me count the ways. Start by thinking about how you treat yourself. You take the best piece of cake for yourself (the one with the frosting flower). You sit in the chair, which affords the best view of the TV screen. You order first (always) at Panera. You ride in the front seat of the car. When with your friends, everyone eats at your favorite restaurant and shops at your preferred stores. Loving others calls for a 180 attitude adjustment.
Do you want others to pray for you? Pray for them. Do you desire mercy? Show mercy. Do you like encouragement? Encourage others. Do you want others to love you? Love others.
Love others as you love yourself.
For Today:
Before you start your planning for today, take a moment to pray for God’s guidance and power as you seek to love others. Today, as situations arise which involve others, think of how you’d wish to be treated and treat them accordingly. Be especially aware of people who:
- cut you off in traffic (you and I have NEVER done this).
- are slow in the checkout lane.
- bring you food you did not order (or forgot to leave off the onions-again).
- are late for an appointment, meeting, or dinner.
Use the To-Doers List Study Guide or a journaling app to plan and journal your day.
- To Do-ers List Study Guide PDF The study guide is very essential to your learning!
- Days Lite: My Wonderful Life App free app from App Store.
For ideas on how to love others, please check the resources below.
Don’t forget to leave a comment in the comment section below. Have a blessed day. Remember to love others!
In case you missed day 1, click on the link below:
To Do-ers List, Day 1: Love God
By Mary Kane
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copyright 2015
Ouch. I have already seen myself in this list. Perhaps the part about standing in line …. Today’s study is about being selfless.
Good reminder, Jane: selfless not selfie-ness!
I struggle with this! I always feel a sense of entitlement!
Oh! That word crossed my mind today too!
This one is tough, and a working process. We need to remember the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.
You are right Kim. “Treat others as you want to be treated” not “Treat others as they have treated you.”
I actually try to do the things stated above on a daily basis, especially since I work in a grocery store. But there are some days it is a struggle.
I am sure you have many opportunities to LOVE others, Rachel!
It is so difficult to love those who don’t seem to love you back. A good reminder to pray that God give me wisdom and power to love the ones who don’t love back.
They are usually the ones who need it the most.Thank you for sharing, Emily!
I am glad to see that you are keeping each Day on your site when you post the new Day. I will be needing to re-read Day 2 every day! Well said.
Rita, I am so glad you commented. You know what I mean about the “frosting piece of cake”! I also need to read Day 2 every day … sometimes hourly!
I find it hard to love people where I work. It seems they do all they can to get on my nerves. I’m older than most of them and I should be the little old gray haired woman who will put my arm around them and say bless your heart. Instead I get a little sideways with them and I am not very loving to them. God often reminds me to love them as I have loved you, when you were not very loving. Only through God’s amazing grace can I love others.
Thank you for being real Jellene. It is only by His grace we do anything!
P.S. I love your name!
When I am struggling with loving the person in front of me, I remind myself that I don’t know what they are going through. It helps me to at least be kind to them even if I still struggle with loving them.
Renea, I can’t see you being anything but loving to everyone. You are beautiful. Thank you for sharing my friend!
Thank you, Mary. That means a lot.
My challenge from today.
1. I truly believe I love my husband and kids no matter what they do. In my heart, I feel annoyed at times but never feel like I don’t love them. However, my actions don’t show that I love them. When they are taking and not giving and I am exhausted at being the only giver (or when that is my perception) my heart attitude and my tone of voice is not loving. Today while studying, I realized that I can’t really claim that I love them if my actions are not showing them unconditional love. I am anticipating the Lord to help me with my tone and my inside attitude this week in response to my needy family.
2. This past week my friends and acquaintances have been having a heated discussion on Facebook about a topic I feel strongly about. As I studied today, it occurred to me that I am not feeling very much love toward these people. Although I have kept my mouth (and my fingers) shut, I have had many unloving thoughts. I am turning this over to God today.
3. The neighbor kids are constantly knocking on our door to play, ask for snacks etc. At the beginning of summer, I LOVED this and I loved them well. The last 2 weeks….not so much. I am asking God to help me renew my love for these kids and be slow to annoyance.
4. I would have never thought that I would have gotten so much out of this well known verse today. Those are just my top 3 convictions. So thankful that God’s Word never stops teaching me and that you have written this study.
Anitra,
You are amazing. I love your insights. Number 3 made me laugh out loud. I remember the days when everyone wanted a piece of me. Keep praying and depending on God to fill you up so you can pour out. You have been through a lot these past few weeks. You are a wonderful Christian woman, wife and mother. Keep on. Great is your faith.
I loved my mom for the many invaluable lessons she taught me when she walked this earth. One of the biggest was this very topic, loving others. When I was having an unloving attitude toward someone, she would look at me and say, you need to pray for that person…a kind prayer. She always told me when you are regularly praying for a person, you will find it difficult to be unloving. God definitely has a way of softening our hearts towards others.
I can hear your mother saying that, Emily. You are just like your mom; very calm, faithful, and loving! God does take our heart of stone and gives us a heart to love others. Thank you for sharing.
Today’s study made me realize that it is fairly rare that I truly put anyone before myself. Even though there are times when I help others, if the work or task is not enjoyable to me I end up having an attitude that is not loving at all.
I think it’s really easy to become comfortable in ourselves, but it’s when we step out and love others that we grow! Thanks for this reminder; it is so important & something I will try to do better 🙂
Elaina, I appreciate your candid reply. I am guilty of the same offense. Thankfully, God offers His grace and transforms our mind and heart. Thank you for sharing!