Matthew 22:35-40

[35] And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. [36] “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” [37] 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. [38] This is the great and first commandment. [39] And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [40] On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

What is the best way to love God? By keeping his commandments.

John 14:23-24

[23] Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. [24] Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

What is the best way to love your neighbour?

James 2:1-9

[1] My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. [2] For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, [3] and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” [4] have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? [5] Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? [6] But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? [7] Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? [8] If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. [9] But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

So love is treating everyone impartially. Not considering one person in the assembly (church) as worthy of special treatment compared to others.

What else is love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

[4] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Importantly, we don’t have clear guidance for vaccinations here. Whether you believe the most loving thing to do is to get vaccinated or not does not depend on the Word of God. What does it depend upon? It depends upon whether you think there is a serious public health issue that vaccination can help mitigate, or not. It depends on whether you believe that resisting treatments that utilise aborted fetal cell lines is legitimate protest against the evils of abortion or not.

I have to address the “fact” checkers briefly: there are no aborted cells in the NZ jab, there are not even aborted fetal cell lines (cells that were later grown from the aborted fetal cells). There absolutely is evidence that the vaccine was tested using these aborted fetal cell lines though.

Whether the most loving thing to do is to get the jab or not may also depend on whether you think it is important to protest the use of a treatment that has never been used in humans before and will not complete the long-term testing until 2023. You may feel that this sets a dangerous precedent that could cause the loss of life of many due to improperly tested medications.

What we absolutely must do, is allow one another the freedom to decide what is the most loving application of the royal command. If we love our neighbour, we won’t insist on our own way and we will assume the best of them (until we can’t due to clear evidence to the contrary). We must allow our neighbour the freedom of conscience before God to do as they must without coercion.

1 Timothy 1:5

[5] The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.