Loving Your Neighbor in Your Youth...by Piper

 I feel as if my age is a hindrance to loving my neighbor. I know I am not alone in these feelings. Many Christian teenagers proclaim their anxiousness to grow up so that they can “fully” serve their neighbors.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depends all the Law and the Prophets.”
-Matthew 22:36-40
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 Often, I feel inadequate. I feel like I cannot fulfill the second commandment fully until I reach an age where I have the ability to financially support a family. I feel as if my age is a hindrance to loving my neighbor. I know I am not alone in these feelings. Many Christian teenagers proclaim their anxiousness to grow up so that they can “fully” serve their neighbors.
 
If teenagers only realized how wrong these feelings of inadequacy were, the world would be radically impacted. Our age does not limit how effective our love is.
We have the same power and the same love within us that rose Jesus Christ from the grave. The Holy Spirit doesn’t start empowering us at a certain age… He starts when we call upon the name of Jesus (Romans 10:13). The love of a ten-year old and a fifty-year old can be equally influential in changing lives. Age does not matter to God. God will use anyone.
 
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”  -1 Timothy 4:12
 
Loving our neighbor does not have to be complicated. Often, I imagine the worst-care scenario when I think about showing love to someone. I believe this is Satan’s way of deterring us from acting on our calling. He wants us to think that something will occur horribly if we love our neighbor. By placing these negative thoughts into our heads, Satan believes that he is hindering us. However, nothing can hinder the advancement of God’s kingdom. 

Trust in the Lord to provide the strength you need to love your neighbor. He does not call us to do something without equipping us to perform the task.
 
Jesus gave it all for us. He willingly died for us. In response of His extravagant love, we offer up our lives to love others. Why wouldn’t we go out of our way to show the love of Jesus to someone?
 
We were created to live in community. Loving our neighbor fulfills our purpose in life. 
Without love, there truly is nothing.
 
Take a step of faith. Go love your neighbor. Don’t let your age be an excuse.​

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