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God Said, “Be Nice!”
It comes from the second greatest commandment.
It could be that the foundation for all the teachings of Jesus can be summed up by his one encounter with an official that The Living Bible translation refers to as a lawyer.
This official, a man who is very concerned with the law, asked Jesus what was the most important commandment. Jesus replied that the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind. He immediately followed up by saying that the second greatest is like the first, love others as yourself.
I’ve always found it interesting that Jesus didn’t stop with the greatest commandment but went on to include the second as well. He obviously thought that it was important enough to not let it go unmentioned. In fact, Jesus went on to say that if these two are obeyed then all of the other laws and commandments would be satisfied.
Think about that second commandment. Love others as yourself. A short simple sentence that does not contain a provision for exceptions. In other words Jesus didn’t say, “Love others as yourself….except for the Democrats or Republicans or blacks or Asians or Latinos or gays or Muslims or the guy who cut you off in traffic or the lady down the street who lets her dog poop in your yard.”
