...anyone who loves their neighbor as thyself doth the will of God.
hi neighbor
True what you said is not false.
But we do need to add on to it. To explain... in our household we were 3 children. My brother, my sister and myself. If we were peaceful and loving towards each other we did the will of our father (earthly). But there were times that my father would call me and give an instruction to me. Sometimes it was something as simple as "go make me a cup of coffee". Sometimes it was to go clean the car. Sometimes mow the lawn. All of which I was able to do. Sometimes it required that me and my brother had to work together to accomplish a goal. Creating a garden or so on. Given that I was a child a did not understand of what my dad wanted from me without him asking me and knowing it exactly when he wanted it before he even asked. I am now 32 and there are still time my father would call me and ask him to do something for him. Then I would get in my car and go do it. You see he did it since youth to teach me obedience, but also because what he asked me often taught me things about life I otherwise wouldn't have known. It was the will of my father that we should live in peace and love and harmony together. But the other things were also his will.
So too it is with God, on a different scale perhaps, but quite similar. Yes God wants us to love Him and our neighbour as ourselves. Even the ten commandments were given as a clear instruction what not to do and what to do. Indicating His will. However, that is only a part of His will so that we would love one another and live in peace and harmony and can spiritually grow. However that is only in part His will. Not that it isn't His will. But He also which to ask you to do tasks for Him. just like my father(earthly) did. Sometimes it is to go and say certain things to people that don't hear or are to emotional to hear. Sometimes it is simple to give clear instruction on a specific project on how He thinks it should be done.
To give you an example. My profession is to be an educator. I am a qualified teacher. However, a lot of my discipline of my classroom and how to manage the learners so that they would listen to me so I could teach them I learned from my earthly father. You see when my father heard I struggle with discipline in my class, he called me towards him and said to me how to manage people. He never taught in a class, however he was a manager at a firm and because he understood how authority works, he could aid me. I did what he told me and since then my class discipline has improved so tremendously that I actually teach other teachers how to obtain authority in their class.
In like ways, God wish to teach us how to do things proper. Hence He gave us the Holy Spirit so that He can teach us in all things. For there is a lot we still need to learn. He wants to have a personal relationship with you and everyone that is His child, hence He calls you child. And when you do wrong, He wish to discipline you and when you do right He wish to applaud you. And if you achieve something He wants to be there to congratiolate you on it. He wants to be your Father. And God is a "hands-on" DAD. Not a Father that seperates Himself from you and hope you'll figure out all your questions on your own.
Think about it... God is good. I consider my own earthly father as trying to be good according to God's standards. My own father was always there when I needed him. Everytime I needed advice, I could ask. Sometimes he could give me out of his own experience and sometimes he would teach me step by step. He didn't just give me a book at the beginning of my life and expect that I would figure out everything as I grow up by just reading the book. Even if all the information of my entire life were to be in that book. What personal relationship would I have had with my father if I only had a book. None. I would only know a book. He would not know me. For he would not have witness how I grow up, and see what I question and to what I respond. But more importantly I wouldn't know him. I wouldn't know what he like or dislike. I wouldn't know that my father loves barbeques and movies. And I wouldn't know what type of movies he like. I wouldn't know that what my father treasure greatly is us sitting around a table holding hands and praying together as a family. I wouldn't know what makes my father angry and what makes him dissapointed. But because I grew up with my father, I do know these things.
Now God is good. How much more does He not want a in depth relationship of LOVE with us. Getting to know us and we getting to know Him. He didn't just give a few maniscripts to ISREAL and hoped that they would figure it out. Now He was with them every step of the way. Sometimes He would punish them and sometimes he would bless them. Sometimes He had to tell them this way or that way or this is how you do this. He send prophets and judges and just like my earthly father would punished their disobedience but praised their obedience. He didn't seperate Himself from ISREAL. He was with them all of the time. And just like children don't constantly look at their parents but sometimes make mistakes, so to ISREAL didn't always kept their eyes on God and made mistakes. But always God eventually forgave them. He did punish them. But so did my father if I did something wrong. In like manner, Jesus worked with the disciples. He trained them. And for three years they learned how to rely on Him. Three years they were taught the basics. He tried to explain as much as possible to them, but their minds could only fathom so much in such a short time. But even so He didn't walk up to them and said, Hey here is a scroll of how I want things done now and then and went and died on the cross, overcame it and ascended. No. He spend thirty three years with us to make sure we understood. And even afterward we see Paul teaching Timothy,etc in like manner.
And now that we are His Children, does He not also wish to teach us as He said He would. Discipline us if need be, and praise us we do good? I asure you He does. God is good. He is not an absent Father. He didn't just leave us to our fate with the Bible. He always wanted to have a relationship with us. And that is what it is all about... that is why Jesus said. Not everyone that calls me LORD LORD will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but He who does the will of My Father.
Why would He say that, it is answered in what He said next...that the person should go away from Him because He never KNEW him. Jesus wants to KNOW you. He knows everything about you. He made you. But He wants to KNOW you. Have a relationship with you. And if you does the will of the Father, you will also KNOW God. Know what irritates Him and what makes Him laugh. What He likes and dislikes and to grow in Spirit and Truth and Worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
So Yes love your neighbour, but also listen and DO the WILL of God and be OBEDIENT.
