Love Your Neighbour

Matthew 22:34-40

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

These commands are radical. The essence of sin is pursuing happiness without God and without the happiness of others in God. In other words, sin is not depending on God for our happiness and not caring for the godly happiness of others. That is why these two commandments are the greatest.

Jesus commands, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Is He saying that we are to love ourselves? Is He commanding self-love? Is He saying that we have to love ourselves in order to love others?

No. He isn’t commanding us to love ourselves. He is assuming we do already. Loving yourself does not mean self-esteem, but rather seeking your own happiness. Blaise Pascal said in his Pensees, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception.” It is a given that men love themselves. All men want to be happy. You want clothes for yourself, you want food for yourself, and you want protection, a place to live, and pleasant activity for yourself. Even those who have no self-esteem and drink and smoke and commit suicide love themselves. They wish to make themselves happy, but their notion of how to be happy is wrong. We all do what we think will make us happiest. This is the self-love Jesus was referring to.

Jesus tells us that this self-love should be mirrored in our love for others. Our love for others should reflect our self-love. As you desire food for yourself, so desire to feed your neighbour. As you long for clothes for yourself, long to clothe your neighbour. Desire to provide shelter, friendship, and security for your neighbour as you would like it to be provided to you. As you wish men to do to you, do so to them.

Firmly root your happiness in God. Then enlarge and expand your joy by loving others. Love them the way you love yourself.

Love is complex. This meditation certainly hasn’t answered all my questions on love, nor do I expect it to answer yours. There are complications such as competing claims on our limited time, and choices about what to give up and what to keep. It’s complicated. But trust in God and pray that He will provide you with wisdom and understanding and faith so that you may love others as you love yourself.

So many times the Bible affirms the value of loving others. See the following:

Leviticus 19:18; Zech 8:17; Matt 5:43; 7:12; 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31, 33; Luke 6:35; 10:27; John 15:12; 13:34; Rom 12:10; Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:13-14; Eph 4:2; 5:2; 1 Thess 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thess 1:3; James 2:8; 1 Peter 1:22; 3:8; 4:8; 1 John 3:11; 4:7.