I am going to be writing articles for our church magazine, so I will post my drafts here and work on them here.
'34But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37And He said to him, "‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38"This is the great and foremost commandment. 39"The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40"On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."' Matthew 22:24-40
Jesus was asked a question by a lawer of the Pharisees. This kind of puts the questioner as someone who was clever enough to find a question that is impossible to answer! It is a tradition among Jews today that Jesus was not the only person who gave the answer that He did. In fact it may not have been an impossible question so much as a question he already knew the answer too. In fact in Luke, a lawer is credited with giving the answer:
'25And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" 27And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."' Luke 10:25-27
The problem for the people at the time was revealed in the lawer's next question, "Who is my neighbour?!!" They knew they should love their neighbour, but they reinterpreted "their neighbour" to mean someone who was exactly like them! Very convenient!
One Rabbi is credited with given the same answer to the question, "Sum up the whole law while standing on one leg!" Religion will have you doing crazy things!! Faith on the other hand will set you free from that!
So, we know the answer. But what was the question? '40"On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."' Matthew 22:40. Loving God and loving your neighbour sums up the whole of the Law and the Prophets. To the Jews that meant all of the first five books and all of the books of the prophets. In other words, all of the instructional teaching in those books can be summed up as loving God and loving your neighbour! Whatever you read in those instructions fits into one of those two categories, and if they don't then we've misread them!
But that isn't all that Jesus said. He didn't just say, "Love God (with all) and love your neighbour." He said, "love your neighbour AS YOURSELF!" So where does this as yourself come into it?
There are those who think that the problem is that we love ourselves! They say that it is a given that people love themselves and that no where does the bible tells us to love ourselves. They read this as saying "Love your neighbour in the same way that I can automatically assume that you are already loving yourself." By the way they assume that even those who self abuse are actually being totally self indulgent!
The problem with that is I'm pretty sure God doesn't want us to love our neighbours with anything less than the kind of love that He loves us. For example, if I am a smoker, I would love you by wanting you to smoke too!
Basically, if I look at how you love yourself I may decide I don't really want you to love me, and I would say that is a lot of the trouble with the churches witness on the whole. They have missed this great point. There are basically two kinds of love, there is the, "What's in it for me love" this is the kind of philio love as the Greeks called it. For example, if I say, "I love bacon sandwiches!" what's in it for the pig?! In the same way I can love my friends, because of what's in it for me. The love that I get from my friends becomes a fuel for my love for them.
The other kind of love is the "what's in it for you love?" This is what the Greeks call agape love. It means that it is irrelevant what I get out of it, I am going to love you for what you get out of it. This is the way we are told to love God and each other. It is the love of self sacrifice. For example, when we worship God, there are times when we are sick to death of the song, but we sing our hearts out because it is our offering to God. Another analogy would be the kind of gifts we buy. For example, CJ loves Cava, and I can't stand the stuff! If I buy a drink we can share then I am in it for what I can get out of it. But I buy her Cava because I know she likes it.
So, if we are to love God with all and love our neighbour in the "what 's in it for them" love, then there is nothing there for us. But by attaching the "As yourself" God has made sure we love ourselves with the same love. As someone who found maths and computers quite interesting, this is quite a logical statement.
If
love of neighbour = love of self
then
love of self = love of neighbour
In other words we need to love ourselves with the same agape love; the "What's in it for you" love, as we love our neighbour with. It is not a dirty self indulgent love. It is a holy and righteous love. Love in itself can be defined as "Wanting the best for the object of the love." If we look through the Old Testament we not only find verses that deal with loving God and our neighbour, we also find verse that can be seen as loving ourselves. These verses are very often the same verses that deal with loving God. For example, Psalm 1:1-3 reads:
"1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers." Psalm 1:1-3
Who benefits from this? Well we might see this as about loving God with all of our heart and mind, but ultimately we benefit? This can be seen as loving ourselves as equally as it can be seen as loving God.
So, the key to the second command that Jesus gave is very much tied to the first. When we love God with our heart, that is loving ourselves. We carry that through to the second command and we love our neighbour as ourselves.
Filling our tanks!
Imagine you have a love tank, a bowl if you like. As you go through life various people have either put into the bowl or taken from it. When we are children our parents are expected to fill it. The fun we have with friends and family, our peers when we are teens and so on are all supposed to have filled our bowl. However, life doesn't work like that no matter what our expectation. So imagine that in my bowl I have hate, bitterness, abuse, bullying, neglect, conflict and so on. Now, who would want me to love them with what my love tank is full of?! Only those who have the same mixture in their bowl!
I say my love tank is full of, because if I sit and like my wounds over what I have received then that is exactly what it is. I am holding on to the negative and cherishing it. Obviously I need to empty that hurt and fill my bowl with the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, forgiveness, mercy and so on that God gives to us. Now, who would want me to love them with what my love tank is full of? Those who are ready to receive what God want them to have!
If we look at the life of Jesus for example, He gave Himself time. When He heard that John the Baptist had been killed His first reaction was to go and be alone with His friends. It didn't work out, but never the less His intention was to give Himself space to deal with it emotionally.
OK, so let's go back to the formula!
Love of neighbours = love of self therefore love of self =love of neighbours.
What is it that we are supposed to give to our neighbours?
"23"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others." Matthew 23:23
If we are supposed to give justice, mercy and faithfulness to others than we should give the same to ourselves! We know we are told time and again to be merciful, well we need to be merciful with ourselves as well! We should not live in the old nature, beating ourselves up if we get something wrong, we should seek God's forgiveness through confession and receive that forgiveness for ourselves. What good is it if God has forgiven us if we wont let ourselves forget it?!
We should want to receive what God has for us. He has so much for us.
Lunch time!!
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2 comments:
Well, they're in for a treat!
A few comments. This sentence was confusing to me:
"I say my love tank is full of, because if I sit and like my wounds over what I have received then that is exactly what it is."
(also, note the typo "like")
There was another paragraph that I couldn't get. This one:
"The problem with that is I'm pretty sure God doesn't want us to love our neighbours with anything less than the kind of love that He loves us. For example, if I am a smoker, I would love you by wanting you to smoke too!"
I hope you don't mind the feedback. I think it's so great that you are doing this! It makes me wish our church did a magazine.
Keep writing!!
I didn't realise how long it had got!! It will not make a mag article. If I ever get round to finishing it it will probably make a self published booklet.
Thanks for doing some proof reading for me.
If editing a mag is something you would fancy doing then why not suggest it to your Pastor. If churches over there don't have mags then you could start something!
When I first moved to this area, we went to a church. I said to the vicar that I prayed for revelation and got it but didn't have an outlet. He said they have a mag and always want articles, so that would give me 10 outlets a year!! From none to ten a year was like being given such a gift! I honoured it and produced an article for every edition for 8 years until we left that church!
I'm not sure whether I actually want to write articles for this mag, I may well do, I may have an editorial page and will have to do a lot for it anyway. Not sure yet what I will do. If I produce a bigger article like this one that I self publish I could either have it as an extra to the mag or advertise it in the mag!
I have a few article I want to write. Maybe I will include them all in one article! This one!!
I was given a verse earlier, not personally, but listening to a teaching, "Dig your own systen and drink your own fresh water!" It reminded me that I shouldn't just pass on what I hear else where, but should seek for my message, my ministry, my annoiting!
By the way I meant to say, "Lick my wounds" not "like my wounds!"
And as for the other one basically if I love another in the way I love myself then whatever I do for me is the best you can expect. If I abuse myself, say smoking then don't expect much from me. However, God wants us to love others in the way He loves us. Then it follows we need to love ourselves in the way He loves us. And the simple answer to that is that we allow ourselves to recieve that love and accept it.
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