…and love your neighbour as yourself. God mandates you to “…[l]ove your neighbour” and adds two very important words to the end that command: “…as yourself” (Mark 12:31). Should your concern for your neighbour not be to the same degree as it is for yourself, that is unselfish? Do you not love yourself?
Tell me, how do you? How much love do you have for you and is there anything that you would not do for you?
God wants you to treat others as well as you treat yourself. Remembering how much value God places in every one He creates should help you value yourself and easily find value in others created by Him and in His image. He expects you love God’s way.
As a member of God’s prestigious family, you are called to seek the good of others and, more particularly, commanded to love others as Christ loves you (John 12:15), that is, sacrificially and unconditionally. In short, you are expected to imitate Christ’s all-encompassing love for it is by this that the world knows that you are God’s disciple (John 12: 34-35).
Pause and spend a few moments reflecting on how you treat those around you. When was the last time you went the extra mile? Do you truly love your neighbour as yourself?
Some theologians put this as the summary of the biblical message, at least for the new Testament: loving Go with all, and loving our neighbors. NOT JUST LOVING THEM, but loving them as OURSELVES.
If we see how selfish we humans can be, tending to love our neighbors as ourselves could make all the difference, decrease racism and a better world for us and our children, not withstanding walking in God’s Will.
May He help us 🙏
It’s indeed a blessings when we have yo be reminded of the very fundamental biblical principle that shape our inner man and character to be Christ-like. This is the standard of our Christianity and walk with God- Love.
Thanks Lolla.
God is Love and His Love towards us is unselfish and unconditional. For this reason, He sent His only Begotten Son our Savior to die for the sins of the world As Christians, God expects us to exhibit this same kind of love to our neighbors by going the extra mile to meet their needs or to make them happy
However this requires the Grace of God which we need to ask for constantly
Loving my neighbour as myself (like the admonitions of the Sermon on The Mount) is a very ‘high bar’, indeed. An unattainable standard without the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot just arrive at ‘it’ just like we cannot just arrive at imitating God (God is love). This is the most significant part of our journey of faith, Jesus said ‘this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
If we truly endeavour to attain God will see us through.