Love your Neighbor?

Ramblings of my mind and fingers:
I think a lot about Jesus' summary of the Law and Prophets: "love God and love your neighbor" (paraphrased). I actually think fairly often about many of Jesus' teachings.
Yes, I realize this seems weird since I have walked away from the Christianity I was affiliated with for so long, but I still believe there is a lot of valuable wisdom in His words and it is certainly relevant to the culture I live in. On top of all that, "love your neighbor" is still a great way to articulate my worldview these days.

In case you aren't aware, my family life "hit the fan" almost 3 years ago, and I've done a lot of self-reflection in the time since. With my concurrent departure from Christianity came a need to re-evaluate my moral foundation. I can sum it up by saying that my god is love. This means that I can really adapt "love god and neighbor" for my own guidance, and I think a lot about love, and humility, and prioritizing people and making sure they feel valued. I guess you could say that I'm a humanist. I'm also trying to pass on to my kids that loving people is the most important thing, regardless of your religious or philosophical perspective.

So I find myself asking what it means to love God and love your neighbor? Are they 2 separate things? Are they intertwined? Can I still love my neighbor even if I don't believe that God exists in the way He is described by American Evangelical Christianity (or at all)? What if I skip the first part for now and try to tackle the second part until I can understand the first part better?

Nevertheless, I am fully aware that it means something different to everyone, including the Christians in my life and in the culture around me. Which begs the question:


How do you "love your neighbor"?


I will say this: if doing the first (loving God) renders you unable to do the second (love your neighbor) or gives you reason not to, then I think you're probably doing it wrong. But then some people will just call their abuse or rejection of their neighbor "tough love".


If I bring up Jesus' admonitions about judging and throwing stones, and your first reaction is to divert and talk about not sinning any more, or talk about judging in the discerning sense, or talk about how sinners just use Jesus' words to shut up Christians who are really "speaking in love", then I truly believe you are completely missing the point.