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| You gotta love thy neighbors | Photo Credits |
Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”
and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark
12:30-31).
To love our neighbor as ourselves, we are to love them in
the same manner, to the same extent, and in the same way that we love
ourselves; that is the floor standard when it comes to loving others.
But the problem with most of us is that we are either too
self-absorbed or too empty and insecure. If we are the former, we find it hard
to get along with others, let alone love. If we are the latter, there is
nothing much to expect from us because we don’t have much to give. The Bible
teaches us this:
Learning to love
yourself is to know the greatest Lover of all.
Paul reminds us in his letter to the church of Philippi that
among other things, we are to “dwell on whatever is true” (Phil4:8). The truth
is that God places great value on us. The Bible tells us a lot about how much
worth God has placed on us – He has redeemed us not by precious stone, silver
or gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and nothing can separate
us from His love.
How much are we worth? We are worth a lot! Paul goes on to
say that whatever we have seen, heard learned and received we are to put into
practice (Phil4:9).
The solution to relational problems is to have a great
relationship with our God. We develop that by spending time with Him. Everything
else that we learn from His word, everything that we have seen, everything that
we have received, we are to put into practice.
How much are we worth? We are worth a lot! Paul goes on to
say that whatever we have seen, heard learned and received we are to put into
practice (Phil4:9).
The solution to relationship problems is to have a great
relationship with our God. We develop that by spending time with Him.
Everything else that we learn from His word, everything that we have seen,
everything that we have received, we are to put into practice.
Learning to love your
neighbor is to ACCEPT them as you want to be accepted.
We are to love our neighbor by accepting them the way God
has accepted us. We accept them because we can empathize with them, because God
commanded us, and because we follow Christ. We are to see ourselves as God sees
us, to be thankful to God for loving us, and then to love others in the same
way and to the same extent.
God accepts us, and so we are to accept others. This can be
hard especially when there are difficult, demanding, disappointing, and
destructive people around us.
But we are to remember that we are the same as these people,
and God accepts us anyway.
Learning to love
yourself is to FORGIVE all as you expect to be forgiven.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he writes, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”(Col3:13).
He repeats it to the Ephesians, “Be kind
and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you.”(Eph4:32). When Christ died on the cross, God has forgiven us
all our sins.
How can we not forgive when we have been forgiven? Love
keeps no record of wrongs. Love leaves the hurts and offenses of others at the
foot of the Cross and lets them go!
Love hands these offenses over to Christ. Forgiveness can be
hard, and most of us would say we can’t forgive but through God’s power, we
can.
Let us dwell on this truth: Because Jesus loves me enough to die for me, I am a person of great worth. Knowing this enables me to love others because I see their value in Christ as well.
