There are many types of love. I want to point out five of them, as noted in Scriptures, in a certain logical order.
I. Love the Lord
The first is obvious since it is the first commandment, as recognized by Jews and Christians alike. “You will love the LORD with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
II. Love the Neighbor
This is also obvious as both Jewish and Christian traditions recognize this as the second commandment. “You will love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)
III. Love the Foreigner
This is a sub-set of “loving your neighbor” but increases the big moral challenge. (The Hebrew text emphasizes the aspect of social injustice.)
“The foreigner that is living with you will be to you as a citizen among you; and you will love him as yourself; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:34)
This commandment directly challenges ethnic pride and racial discrimination. It also addresses the issue of foreign immigrants. They are all to be included in the love circle. There are no excuses. We love people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid quoted this verse in defending policy of treating Arabs fairly in Israeli law.
IV. Love your Enemy
Here the love commandment is pushed by Yeshua to the extreme. We are to love all people, even those who hate us; who are our enemies.
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who falsely accuse you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
“Loving your enemies” has had special meaning for Israeli Messianic Jews and Palestinian Arab Christians. The political situation has our peoples at enmity. Yet our love for one another in Yeshua overcomes all the surrounding conflicts.
This calls us to a divine kind of love that surpasses all human selfishness. Yeshua was the first to command it and to live by it Himself.
Note: this is not the same as trust, because trust demands a reciprocal action from the other person. We do not trust our enemies (John 2:24-25). We are to show them God’s love in the hope that grace can change their hearts; and change ours for that matter.
V. God loves You
These love commandments quite frankly are impossible on our own. They point us to the need for a deeper level of love, a greater source of love. That is God’s love.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16)
We are able to love because God loves us (1 John 4:7). We would not have even know what love is if Yeshua had not demonstrated it for us (1 John 4:9). It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1 John 4:10). It is He who loved first, and then we afterward (1 John 4:19).
So here is the logic of God’s love:
He commands us to love Him, as He is our maker.
Since we love Him, we are to love the rest of His human children.
That love includes those of backgrounds foreign to us.
It even includes those who treat us badly.
Love is only possible because God loved us first and gave us the ability to love others.
Since God’s primary character trait is love, when we love others, we become more godly ourselves.
