{"id":97075,"date":"2026-08-04T10:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=97075"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:56:20","slug":"loving-god-leads-to-loving-your-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/loving-god-leads-to-loving-your-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving God Leads to Loving Your Neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

“Again and again the message of the Old Testament is that if you choose the wrong gods you will end in social decay. Biblical monotheism, far from an abstract creed, affirms that only when God is properly honored will society be just and compassionate. Modern western society, reaping the fruit of two centuries of systematically excluding the living God from all practical public relevance, is now plagued by the loss of family stability, respect for property, social compassion, sexual integrity, and the sanctity of life. Those who will not love God soon find it irksome (or uneconomical) to love their neighbors.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christopher J.H. Wright on Deuteronomy 27.15-28<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Again and again the message of the Old Testament is that if you choose the wrong gods you will end in social decay. Biblical monotheism, far from an abstract creed, affirms that only when God is properly honored will society be just and compassionate. Modern western society, reaping the fruit of two centuries of systematically…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[201],"tags":[65,38,54],"class_list":["post-97075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-love","tag-morality","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-your-neighbor-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":97075,"position":0},"title":"Love Your Neighbor (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments are first, to love God with all the heart, soul, strength, and might, and second, to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). These commandments are the basis for everything else God commands. It's not hard to see in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88726,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-your-neighbor-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":97075,"position":1},"title":"Love Your Neighbor (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The command to \"love your neighbor as yourself\" is a wonderful rule to live by, but even it can be misused. For example, politicians who have little to no regard for the rule of God will reach into the Bible when they think it makes a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-isnt-more-time-spent-on-spreading-the-golden-rule\/","url_meta":{"origin":97075,"position":2},"title":"Why isn’t more time spent on spreading the golden rule?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Yes, I did generalize your views when I inferred that the church goes after sins of the \"flesh\" and homophobic is one of the words I used to describe your stance. After reading your response it turned out that I was right in your case. It seems that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12626,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-a-loving-god-send-me-to-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":97075,"position":3},"title":"How Could a Loving God Send Me to Hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tanner Campbell The very thought of Hell is terrifying. Such a thought is an intense provoker for many to repent of their sins and revere the word of the Lord. However, others think little of Hell. For example, you may have heard someone say something like \"how could a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20109,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/teaching-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":97075,"position":4},"title":"Teaching Love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 13:11-14 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I received a complaint several years ago. After reading an article on why sex outside of marriage is sin, the reader complained, \u201cI wish you guys would pay more attention to the golden rule, \u2018love thy neighbor,\u2019 than all the homophobic and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-have-to-believe-in-jesus-to-be-saved-from-your-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":97075,"position":5},"title":"Do you have to believe in Jesus to be saved from your sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you have to believe in Jesus to be saved from your sins? I mean, what if you were really trying to love your neighbor and do your best but you just kept looking at Christianity (very open-mindedly) and just kept thinking it must not be true? Could an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97079,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97075\/revisions\/97079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}