THE MAIN IDEA –
Relationships are the most important thing in the kingdom of God. Our passage reveals three truths about love in the kingdom of God.

LOVE IS RULE #1 IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) means, “Do not discriminate against anyone. Do not show favoritism to anyone. Treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.” It is called the “royal” law because it is rule #1 in the kingdom of God. We must not take the royal law lightly. If we practice discrimination and favoritism, we are criminals, that is lawbreakers. If we break just one of God’s laws, we are effectively breaking all of His laws. We are disobeying God Himself, not just some impersonal, institutional rule. God knows we are not perfect, but He is concerned about our attitude toward obedience. (1) God wants us to take our personal holiness seriously, not lightly. (2) God wants us to hold fast to His mercy and grace when we do stumble, because we will. And (3) God wants us to practice grace and mercy toward one another, because we are all in the same boat.

LOVE IS ACTION IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
James says that we are to continually speak and continually act in a manner that is loving to our neighbor (verse 12). Who then is my neighbor? The word of God says that we should consider even our enemies to be our neighbors. In fact, the whole point of the royal law is that we are to continually speak and continually act in a loving manner ESPECIALLY to those people we do not like, because it takes absolutely no effort at all to do so to those we already love. Why would God command us to do something we already do? At the very least, that means that we should stop with the shaming. Shaming someone is causing someone to lose face. Also, we should quit with the cliques. It’s good to have close friends. And we don’t have to like everybody. But God doesn’t command us to like everybody. God commands us to love everybody. We love people by respecting them and serving them, by fellowshipping with them, by not rejoicing in their misfortune, by being happy for them in their fortune, by not judging them, by forgiving them. This is love. It is a skill and an action, and God commands us to love, especially those we may not like.

LOVE REQUIRES FAITH IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Through our confession of faith in Jesus Christ, all of our sins—past, present, and future—are forgiven. But that does not mean that we have then been given the green light to sin. We will all need to give an account before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25). And so if you cannot find it in your heart to show mercy to others, if you cannot find it in your heart to forgive others who have done you wrong, if you cannot find it in your heart love people that you don’t like, then whatever faith you think you have may not be saving faith. But even then, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” God has an infinite supply of mercy in store for those who repent, confess their sin, and receive His mercy. And when we receive His infinite supply of mercy through faith, that mercy will just overflow out of us toward others. The bottom line, our right relationship with God is most evident, not so much in our morality, although that is important. Our right relationship with God is most evident in our right relationships with other people—when we love our neighbor as ourselves—especially those neighbors we may not like.

DISCUSSION QUESTION -
What is your love language (that is, in what ways do you feel most loved by someone)? How would you apply that same kind of love to someone you don’t like?