Jesus told us in Matthew 22 the great command was to love God....
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
You may wonder why I have a picture of a nail on this article? Well my wife and I travel full time as van dwellers so I can street preach all over America. We camp in parking lots then as we walk, we often find nails in the lots and we remove them to avoid flat tires. We simply smile and say we are "loving our neighbor". What else are great ways we can love our neighbor to obey God's great command?
*we can bring food those who are hungry
*we can cloth the poor
*do a chore for your neighbor
*we can listen to those hurting
*we can do kind gestures unto them
*clean their house of they are ill
*we can seek justice for them
*we can speak for them (like the unborn)
*we can come to their aid in distress
*we can be a friend
*thank them for a job/service well done
*we can daily encourage them
*we can treat them as we want to be treated (respect and kindness)
*we can do them no harm to them
*we can pray for them
*we can be sorrowful with them
There are so many more great ways you can bless others. Being in ministry and traveling the nation as we do (even living near the under belly of society / many car/van dwellers and the homeless)
we have thankfully found many varied ways to love our neighbor.
But I am here to tell you that all of those things are meaningless UNLESS you preach to them the gospel to eternal life that saves their soul. After all; what good is food or clothing or a nice gesture if you have the key to life everlasting and you do not share that with them?
"the gospel must be part of ANY love offering we do or is it really love at all?"
We are to love God first and He said go preach the gospel (Mark 16). Since 1 John 5:3 says loving God is keeping His commands, we MUST preach the gospel to the neighbors, we are to love. By all means go do your good works of food, clothing and kind deeds but do NOT leave out the gospel good news. (calling your neighbor to repentance/new life)
The truth is if do not share the gospel; you did NOT love Him as God would have you love them.
Go love your neighbor and go; preach the gospel to them!
See the biblical gospel here:
https://www.dontperish.com/the-gospel.html
God be praised
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Here is the biblical gospel: