“‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’ This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’ Contained within these commandments to love you will find all the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 TPT
Note : love you friend in the same way you love yourself.
I have written on this subject on many occasions and it never fails to provoke a negative reaction from some readers because they read titles and not substance. I fully agree that our society often fails because of the self-centered attitude of individuals. But Scripture makes it pretty clear that we are to take a supporting role to the leading role of others. We are to see ourselves as serving others because all our needs have already been met. But that does not negate "in the same way you love yourself".
We don't have to complicate this. Self love is a necessity. If we do not look after ourselves we will not be in any position to help others. We were created with certain needs. We need to eat well. We need proper rest. We need good hygiene. We need friends, and we need to be needed by friends. We need forgiveness. We need mercy. We need love. We need a solid relationship with Father, Son and Spirit. Not complicated but important.
Most of us are not very good at this because we take "consider others more important than yourself" to mean "neglect yourself", which it does not. This same scripture says to "consider the needs of others along with your own". We actually are doing wrong when we are not taking care of what Father has given us.
If we were given a car I am sure most of us would follow the maintenance schedule, keep the fuel tank full and wash the thing as often as we could. It is being a good steward of what has been given to us. It is not different with our life. Our heart, mind and body have needs that must be meet to maintain what has been given to us. Then there is the matter of other people.
When we take the time to understand our needs we will also begin to understand the needs of others. We will give ourselves as a friend because we understand the importance of friendship. When we see someone hungry we will want them to have the best food because we understand the need for good food. When we see someone without a home we will want to help because we know the importance of having a secure place to call home. When someone needs forgiveness we will forgive. When someone needs grace we will shower it upon them. But if we neglect these and many more things for ourselves then we will also neglect them in the lives of others.
We complicate it when we try to push this ministry onto the institutionalized Church or we try to get all religious about it. Stop complicating it. Is Father our provider? Does he provide for our spiritual, emotional and physical needs? Of course he does. So he expects us to be ministering at this level as well, understanding our needs so we can understand the needs of others.
Remember the passage concerning the sheep and goats. Jesus said "whatever you have done for the least of these you have done for me" and vice versa "whatever you have not done for the least of these you have not done for me". Simple. Not complicated. This is the reason James wrote:
"Your calling is to fulfill the royal law of love as given to us in this Scripture: “You must love and value your neighbor as you love and value yourself!” For keeping this law is the noble way to live." James 2:8 TPT
I appreciate that, "the noble way to live". To love yourself enough to look after your needs is the noble way to live. You position yourself to love others by building it on the foundation of you first loving God, then taking care of what he has given you and by taking care of the objects of his love (people).
Can we do this? Of course we can because Jesus said that love will empower us to obey his commandments. It has nothing to do with whether a person is deserving or even what they will do with what we give them. They may throw our friendship away, spit on our gifts and despise our desire to help. They may walk away from our forgiveness and trample over our grace. Then again it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship that may help a person enter the Kingdom of God. Regardless, it will be from a place of authenticity because we love them in the same way we love ourselves. It's beautiful. It's not complicated. It's simple. We just need to do it.
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