The greatest command...
i was thinking of Matthew 22 this morning, especially verse 39 in which Jesus states the second of the great commandments: that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. generally whenever i meditate on this verse i always come to the same conclusion: we as humans are commanded to LOVE our neighbors, not like, not be congenial to, not be dismissive of, but LOVE our neighbors and put thier needs above our own...
i think there is nothing wrong with that interpretation, only after this morning, i do believe it to be incomplete.
until today, my understanding has presumptuously acknowledged only the first part of the verse: that yes, God not only wants, but commands us to love our neighbor... only it seems that i have been completely disregarding the second half: that God wants, and commands us to love OURSELVES in the same way we love our neighbors.
i consider this to be a considerably pithy and decisive command, especially in a culture that favors conformity and cloning over creativity and individualism. a society that tells us if we are different in shape, belief, color, sex, race, we are not as seminal or meaningful as those at the top of the list: movie stars, action heros, football players.
God commands us not to fall into the trap of self hate. He desperately wants us to love ourselves for who we are, not for who society tells us to be...
and it is precisely WHO WE ARE that we deny when reading this verse the aforementioned way. we are so exclusively blinded with the command to love others, that we, by default, do not concider ourselves at all.
we become indifferent, separated, and aloof from the God-equation itself.
we glaze over the second part of this verse because it is easier for us to. for us, for us loved children of God, for us beautiful creatures created in God's own image, it becomes more manageable and simple and effortless to love others rather than ourselves because we understand that in this culture, this kingdom built of mirrors, it is takes less struggle to ignore your own reflection to see the beauty and need of anothers'. and through this, we accept, realize, and pursue the ease in avoiding loving ourselves.
LOVE
your
neighbor
as
YOURSELF.
because until we love and accept ourselves and take comfort in our only identity as beloved children of God, we will never trully affect and love the others as we are commanded to.
i think there is nothing wrong with that interpretation, only after this morning, i do believe it to be incomplete.
until today, my understanding has presumptuously acknowledged only the first part of the verse: that yes, God not only wants, but commands us to love our neighbor... only it seems that i have been completely disregarding the second half: that God wants, and commands us to love OURSELVES in the same way we love our neighbors.
i consider this to be a considerably pithy and decisive command, especially in a culture that favors conformity and cloning over creativity and individualism. a society that tells us if we are different in shape, belief, color, sex, race, we are not as seminal or meaningful as those at the top of the list: movie stars, action heros, football players.
God commands us not to fall into the trap of self hate. He desperately wants us to love ourselves for who we are, not for who society tells us to be...
and it is precisely WHO WE ARE that we deny when reading this verse the aforementioned way. we are so exclusively blinded with the command to love others, that we, by default, do not concider ourselves at all.
we become indifferent, separated, and aloof from the God-equation itself.
we glaze over the second part of this verse because it is easier for us to. for us, for us loved children of God, for us beautiful creatures created in God's own image, it becomes more manageable and simple and effortless to love others rather than ourselves because we understand that in this culture, this kingdom built of mirrors, it is takes less struggle to ignore your own reflection to see the beauty and need of anothers'. and through this, we accept, realize, and pursue the ease in avoiding loving ourselves.
LOVE
your
neighbor
as
YOURSELF.
because until we love and accept ourselves and take comfort in our only identity as beloved children of God, we will never trully affect and love the others as we are commanded to.
posted by Lord Milton Pepperbottom III at 1:27 PM
8 Comments:
All I can say is -- your observations here are profoundly wise. Jan Forever
Your blog here is very deep. I like you! if you know what I mean?...
Um, I feel strange. my pants feel tight. what the crap is going on?
But for reals yo, I like your thought. Thanks for the time you put into the blog I enjoy reading it almost everyday.
If your looking for a break from deep thinking and want to waste some time, check out this blog http://markisawesome.blogspot.com I just found it yesterday and it cool too.
keep up the good work. you rock!
p.s. Move to Minnesota and live with mark
ha!
Agreed - but how do you love yourself when you screw up? Continuously? Truly loving yourself depends on your perspective on grace, on having a new life/a new heart in Christ. And when you can believe that you are forgiven, it's easier to believe that about others...
granted, it is difficult sometimes (actually most of the time), but there is only one perspective on grace, either you have it or you don't, and simultaneously there is only one attitude on loving onself: it only comes through accepting God's love and taking comfort in our identity as His beloved children... this, of course, doesn't mean that we can perpetually and relentlessly accept God's love all the time, and therefore love ourselves all of the time, after all, we are broken and imperfect objects lost in a world not naturally our own, yet God never promises perfection, he promises fullness, and only through said struggle to love do we gain abundant life and therefore love.
religions perplex me. that's probably why I'm an athiest.
i'll tell ya what's ironic, it is partially because of my perplexion associated with atheism that i am a christian... weird.
It seems that there is even more to what is going on with the second commandment. I think that we can only really understand it in light of the first which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. This first commandment is the beauty of the entire passage. The second commandment cannot be accomplished without the first in this sense: loving God with all your heart places any affections we have on God alone. This can amazingly be considered love for self in that what we love in ourselves is Christ. So the second commandment is really the same as the first...if what you love in yourself is Christ, then loving your neighbor as yourself is loving Christ. For a neighbor that does not love Christ, loving that neighbor would only mean wanting him to love Christ. Wanting for your neighbor to love Christ would be what you want for yourself.
Anonymously,
Will
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