To a disciple of Christ, loving your neighbor does not always count. Here’s why.

Loving God comes before loving your neighbor. You must fist prove your love for God before you can love your neighbor.

Love is proven by faith, and faith, by obedience. To prove your love for God, you must first have faith that the will of God is good, and that you have the desire to do it (1). To prove your faith and your desire, you must enter into a covenant of obedience, to offer yourself (2), your life (3) to do the will of God (4). Only then, shall you receive the spirit of Christ to empower you to do the rest of God’s will, where loving your neighbor is commanded.

Without the faith to “sign and seal” the covenant of obedience with your promise, loving your neighbor and other good works do not count (5). And so, even if you have knowledge of all mysteries, have the faith to move mountains, give away all your possessions to feed the poor, prophesied and cast out demons in Jesus’ name, you are nothing to God (6), because you have not proven your love to Him in the first place.

But once you have proven so, it is the spirit who shall take over to reveal, progressively, the work that you must do, and all other truths that you need to know, in order to complete your knowledge of God so that you may know him accurately (7). The spirit will write them in your mind and in your heart so that God will be your God, and that you shall become his people [8].

Blessed are the ones who are given the wisdom to discern between truth and lie.

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References:

1. John 7:17

2. Romans 12:1

3. John 15:13

4. Hebrews 10:9; Exodus 19: 5-8; Psalms 119:106; Nehemiah 10:29

5. Matthew 7:21-23

6. 1Corinthians 13:1-3

7. Ephesians 1:17

8. Hebrews 8:10

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