All you need is love. . .

Everyone once in awhile my Sunday School lessons hit me as important share with everyone, today's lesson would be one of those times.
You know how the Old Testament has those 10 Commandments written in stone, kind of important stuff.  Some of them we find easy to follow some not so simple. . . here's a refresher of them for us:

If you were ever in Sunday School or Religion class you probably could of quoted some if not all of them. Let's skip to The New Testament.  Jesus is on the earth traveling around teaching, healing the sick and just being an all around good guy.  I'm sure his energy was contagious and great to be around.  He would get a lot of people excited, well everyone but the religious folks and leaders who would definitely not like his interference in what they had going on.  So when he would be with a crowd teaching and telling stories they would always take turns asking questions with hopes to trip him up and show him up to the crowd that so eagerly loved and followed him.  This particular day one of the scribes went to Jesus during the argument with the Sadducees and asked: "which commandment is most important of them all??"
To which Jesus wisely responded: The most important is. . . Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second most important commandment is this: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  no other commandment is greater than these.
The simple truth is other than loving God how we treat others is the most important thing on this earth.  Our nature does not naturally look to the needs of others but that is what we are asked to do.  When you stop to think about how we love ourselves...we want the best for ourselves and likewise we should want the best for others.
You say that is fine for those I already love that are my family and friends I don't need to love everyone, not so.

MY NEIGHBOR = ALL PEOPLE
and
HOW I WANT TO BE TREATED = HOW TO TREAT MY NEIGHBORS

So you know that very familiar portion of scripture known as the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13

Love is Patient

Love is kind

Love does not envy 

Love does not boast

Love is not proud 

Love is not rude

Love is not self-seeking

Love is not easily angered

Love keeps no record of wrongs

Love does not delight in evil

Love rejoices with the truth

Love always protects

Love always trusts

Love always hopes

Love always preserves

It isn't just for those getting married it's for all mankind, what we quote we must also be.  We need to be that love to everyone we come in contact with.  

2 Corinthians 3:3 tells us we are Christ's letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, a letter written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  

So remember the next time you're not feeling the love for someone it's your responsibility to love them.  If we all took these scriptures to heart and applied them to our lives how much better of a home, work environment, neighborhood, town etc. would we be in.  Instead of waiting for the other guy to change let the change start in us. . . all we need is love! 

Animals get it maybe we could learn a thing or two from them.