Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Monday Meditations.

To start the week off right, the phrase we're going to be meditating on is loving your neighbor.

And Jesus made it unmistakably clear that loving our neighbor is not just a suggestion.

It is central to our faith.

When asked about the greatest commandment, he responded,

You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

These words leave no room for selfishness or indifference.

If we claim to love God, we must love those around us.

Yet, biblical love is not passive.

It is not a blind endorsement of sin,

nor does it mean becoming a doormat for manipulation and deception.

True love, the kind that comes from Christ,

requires both grace and truth. One of my favorite verses, Romans chapter 12, verse 9, says,

let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. Genuine love does not

celebrate sin, nor does it turn a blind

eye to evil. Jesus who embodied perfect love, he ministered to sinners with compassion as well,

but he never ever excused their sin. He called them to repentance and transformation, but as his

followers, we are called to do the same.

There is a dangerous message in today's culture that equates love with silent approval.

But love without truth is not love at all.

It is deception.

And true Christian love is courageous.

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