Skip to main content

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Mark 12:33  "To love him (God) with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”



How do I love ME?  Let me count the ways...

I clothe myself.  I feed myself.  I pray for myself.  I pity myself...a lot!  I even, "treat" myself occasionally.  I am pretty good to myself and I'm always looking out for me.

Romans 13:9-10 is recorded as "...and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."  Dictionary.com defines neighbor as "one's fellow human being".  It is not defined as a person of a particular sex, race, or creed.  Nor is neighbor defined as someone who always agrees with you.  There is no mention of faith or doctrine.  Fellow human being.  Period.

We know from 1 Corinthians 13, commonly referred to as The Love Chapter, that love is biblically defined as patient and kind.  It is not envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered.  Love does not keep a tally of all the wrong things done....it does not keep score.  Love ALWAYS protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.  Love NEVER fails.

Love, love, love.  I love me, but I love you more!  :)

John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Joseph: Treasure Chest

I've so enjoyed the study of Joseph, thus far.  For me, it has been much like finding a treasure chest, cautiously opening the lid, peering in trying to see everything the chest holds.  Layers upon layers, depths upon depths, discovering and analyzing every part of his life recounted in the Bible like examining small gemstones or more accurately witnessing the most beautiful diamond being formed amidst the ugliest circumstances.  "Natural diamonds are formed about 100 miles beneath the earth's surface where carbon rich rocks are melted by the heat of the earth's mantle, a layer of liquid lava rock, and are compressed by the enormous pressure of the many miles of earth above them. As the earth churns, the heated rock may move upwards away from the heat and cool over time, which can form diamonds if the conditions are just right. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for the process to take place." (ehow.google)  To simplify--high temperature, high pressur...

Get Dressed!

As a woman, getting dressed for the day can be a very meticulous process of matching the shoes, the earrings, even the makeup. It can be a frustrating process if, Heaven forbid, you have put on a few pounds! (Gasp!) It can be rewarding if you have managed to actually drop a few pounds! (Gasp, Gasp!) Getting dressed can literally set the mood for the day or even the entire week. So, I've been pondering if something can be so important to us in the natural, how important must it be in the Spirit realm? Jesus said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on." Later He tells us the condition of our hearts determines whether or not we are considered "unclean." At an early age, I memorized the armor of God. That is, the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of Truth, sword of the Spirit, and finally the shoes of peace. My 3-year-old has it down pat! I b...

Character Traits

The first of the year is always a time of looking inward--self-evaluation.  The fact is, we all have things that we do not like about ourselves.  Most commonly, we describe them as "character flaws".  Perhaps, we should ask ourselves if these attributes are really flawed or is it more accurate that our use of them is where we err.  Sometimes, I think it is the way we exert these quirks that determine what we do and do not like about ourselves as well as how others view us and how we view them.   Also, keep in mind that an imbalance of these qualities can be taken to the extreme and most certainly become flawed.  Some examples: Determination ® Strong-willed, stubbornness Humility ®  low self-esteem Meekness ® weakness Organized  ® obsessive Leadership skills ® controlling, bossy Most of these idiosyncrasies should be viewed as strengths rather than weaknesses.  In the appropriate settings and...