[Pearls Ep 159: Brining Sunday into the week.]
Sunday’s Gospel reading compels us to love our neighbor as we love ourself.
There’s an interesting presupposition nestled in that.
It assumes we’re doing a good job of loving ourself.
Well, to love someone means to “desire the highest and best things” for them.
We can recall times when we seemed to be going out of our way to seek out the “lowest and worst.” In other words, we weren’t doing such a bang-up job of loving ourselves. So how could we properly love others?
This leads to the question – how should we go about loving ourself?
Obviously it means treating ourselves to a trip to Disney, and some new gadgets from the Forbidden Fruit (Apple…), perhaps getting a personal trainer, and spending sessions in front of the mirror saying “I’m perfect just the way I am.”
Oooops – strike that – we thought we were writing for “opposites day.”
If the highest and best thing we can desire for ourself is God, then we love ourself by cultivating love for God.
Which is why you’re reading this in the first place. Bravo!
We get into more specifics in this week’s Pearls video (click here for it) – especially two things we tend to get backward in “loving ourself” – but one of the quickest ways to cultivate our love for God is to trust Him, “Jesus, I trust in you.”
The better we become at trusting our life to Christ, the more naturally it will come to turn our attention to loving our neighbor … as we love ourself.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you,and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”