It has always amazed me that people use the phrase "Love your neighbor as yourself" as some kind of greeting card platitude.
The first part of the phrase sounds very nice: Love your neighbor. It's hard to argue that this is a good idea. Certainly the world would be a better place if we all loved our fellow human beings a little more. It's the second part of Jesus' command that to me is anything but simple piety --- the idea that each of us is called to "love your neighbor as yourself."
I've thought a lot about this passage. The idea of loving my neighbor as myself might sound like a lovely thought. The reality though, to me, is staggering. If you're like me, you love yourself an awful lot. I don't mean that I think fondly of myself. I mean that most of my thoughts and actions are directed towards taking care of myself and my family. How can I possibly direct that kind of energy and thought and devotion to the welfare of someone else --- of everyone else?
"Love your neighbor as yourself," if you ask me, does not mean "think kindly about your neighbor," or "help your neighbor if he asks." Love your neighbor as yourself means to actively work for the well being of your neighbor, just as you act, constantly, for your own well being. We are called not just to do unto others as you would have them do to you. We are called to do unto others as we do for ourselves.
Those who think the Christian faith is based on a collection of benign platitudes, harmless at worst and inspirational at best, would do well to pay more attention to the actual teachings of Jesus Christ. I mean, the call to love our neighbors as ourselves is a call to a pretty radically outward-looking lifestyle. This is what Jesus is saying it means to be a Christian --- that you live this way.
Christianity can be called many things. It should not be called easy. It should not be called superficial. It is a religion that challenges us not just to think differently but to live differently. It challenges just about every assumption we have about how we should live and set priorities in our lives.
If you're like me, it's a challenge to love your neighbor a fraction of the amount that you love yourself. I find it difficult to allow myself to be inconvenienced by the needs of other people. I get impatient when someone takes too long to pay his or her bill at the grocery store. My heart doesn't stir with compassion when I see a homeless person. Something between fear and depression is usually how I feel. I've got a long way to go to love my neighbor as myself.
Fortunately for us, Jesus practices what he preaches. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus shows us that God's love for us is as deep as God's love for God's own son. In other words, God loves us as God loves himself. And God's love includes compassion for our imperfections. It may seem impossible to love others as much as we love ourselves. We will never know unless we try. Bill Peatman writes from Napa. |