“‘Do not seek revenge
or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as
yourself. I am the Lord.’”- Leviticus 19:18
When God says, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself",
what does that mean? Does that mean you strive to serve their needs? Does it
mean you look at them with compassion and forgiveness? Does that mean you
choose to overlook their flaws and discover their purpose?
I am watching so many people who claim Christ to completely
ignore or add their limitations to the meaning of loving their neighbor. They
even go as far as to negate Jesus' words of loving our enemies. Hateful,
racist, prejudice, fear mongering, and/or -phobic rhetoric does belong on the tongues
of believers.
I will allow people who do not claim Jesus to say what they
say because they do not understand the love, joy, peace, mercy, grace, and
compassion He showed while walking this earth, possibly because they haven't
witnessed healthy believers living it out.
However, I cannot stand by and watch my "brothers and
sisters" shoot hateful comments about other people who ARE created by God!
I cannot watch and stand by while my "brothers and sisters" create a
separation of who they will or will not care for. Our Creator didn't do it, so
what gives us the right to do it? We are nothing without Christ's love and
compassion, perhaps we should be living out what we have been taught. (A continuation of a Facebook status)
Perhaps, our struggle is with ourselves? Maybe we have a
battle within making us feel inadequate?
The interesting part of God’s command is that we need to
love people the way we love ourselves. What if we don’t love our-self enough,
which then causes disconnect in our ability to love our neighbor?
God is very clear about who we are in His eyes. We are His
beautiful creation which He declared as very good (Genesis 1:31). He loves us
so much, that He gave us new life through His Son Jesus and gave us a place in
His kingdom (Ephesians 2:4-6). He has made us His children through Jesus Christ
(Galatians 3:26-27). Finally (not to say this is all He has said, but this post
would take forever if I put everything), He says that we are forgiven and
nothing can separate us from that (Romans 8:37-39).
In order to love people wholly, we need to be able to love
ourselves as God as made us holy. His work of grace is what moves us to love
people in grace. His extravagant mercy calls us to share the same mercy.
When we embrace God’s message of complete love for us, then
we can exchange the same amount of love for others.
If we find ourselves struggling to love people due to
differences in culture, religion, social status, lifestyle, etc. Then, perhaps
we need to remember that God loved us despite our culture, religion, social
status, lifestyle, etc.
When we can do that, then our love for our neighbor will
increase and our desire to live like our Savior will intensify so much that we
most likely will lose any form of hate speech, anger, etc. that will hinder our
ability to live out the gospel we are called to share to the world.
May we learn to love ourselves the way God loves us in order
to love our neighbors the way God loves them.
Peace and blessings friends.
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