Love your neighbor as yourself

Luke 10:25: Just then an expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26“What is written in the law? ” He asked him. “How do you read it? ”

27He answered:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.

28“You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.”

The Law that is referred to is found in Leviticus 19 starting at v. 17: You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. V. 18: You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Again we it is repeated in v. 34 and in the New Testament Matthew 19:19, Mark 12:33, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8. What is it about loving yourself as you are supposed to love a neighbor? We hear mainly about loving your neighbor but it seems we don't hear much about loving ourselves. Most likely because we already think of ourselves too much. 

Shakespeare says in Henry V Act 2, scene 4, Dauphin is speaking to his father "Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting" 

How should we love ourselves as Jesus understands loving ourselves? It is important because so many suffer from a burden of guilt and self-flagellation. Most of the self-loathing comes from guilt of some sin committed in the past. We are told to ask God for forgiveness and in some cases stand before our church family or an individual to confess our sin. But what about forgiving ourselves? In order to love oneself, we must be able to forgive ourselves before going before God. Furthermore, in order to love God and those that we care about, we must love ourselves.

To really understand the word love, it is more than an emotion, love is action, something we do to show love. I could sit all day and tell myself that I love my wife or that I love God. Until we "do" something, love is meaningless. So in order to love myself, I must do some very basic things, get up in the morning, clean myself, get dressed and take in nourishment. Emotionally I must have confidence in doing my daily work or tasks. I must think well of myself and to do that I must keep myself informed of those things that concern me most. If my job requires some technical skills, I should read anything newsworthy pertaining to my work. If I am concerned about my salvation, I need to study God's word. 

I read a blog by Rabbi Alan Lurie and in it says, " This definition is very much aligned with the biblical injunction about love: "You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your might." This typical translation, however, does not reveal the inner meaning that is embedded in the Hebrew. A fuller translation reads, "Love all of life -- the imminent spark that animates your consciousness (Adonai), and the transcendent mystery of creation (Elohim) -- with all your knowing, with all your feeling and with all your determination to act." These three components -- knowing, experiencing, acting -- are the fullness of true love."

He goes on to say that there is a distinction between true love and false love of self. The need to feel better than others, to do better than others, to be more pious than others is as complete distortion of self-love.

If we look at the life of Jesus, we can observe that He displays “knowing” by knowing who the Father is. Jesus also experienced all the emotions and temptations that it takes to be human with anger at the money changers at the temple, his distress at the news of Lazarus dying, compassion to many and love for the sinners. He acted with urgency on delivering the message of salvation with his ministry and making sure that the ministry was carried on by His disciples. There is one word that describes the character of Jesus and that is magnanimous. Jesus was complete in God knowledge which give him courage to act with the knowledge that his actions were on the side of right. With God knowledge, we also can be moved to action and because loving oneself, we can act with confidence of what is right.

I am going to take a big step in saying that in order to love ourselves we must also be able to forgive ourselves. The Bible is silent about forgiving ourselves but I think it is implied. 

CS Lewis said: "I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him."

Romans 12:3: For I say, through the grace given me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Man needs certainty in life, just like a teenager seeking significance. There are only two things I can be certain about, God and myself. What others think and feel will always be a mystery.