Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 2 (TMF:2244)

Thursday, December 14, 2023
Peace to Live By: Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 2 (TMF:2244) - Daniel Litton
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       The reality is, though, that Jesus told us to love our neighbors ‘as’ ourselves. That is quite different than ‘instead’ of ourselves. ‘As’ versus ‘instead.’ When we love our neighbors as ourselves, this is what we do: we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Remember that saying? Indeed, the Golden Rule shows us the true meaning behind loving our neighbors ‘as’ ourselves. Really, we have to love ourselves first in order to even love our neighbors. If we were to ask any practicing psychologist today, or a person with a degree in psychology, he or she will probably tell us that this is the case. To put it another way, we can only give when we have, right? I mean, if we don’t have, we can’t give. That’s only common sense. Well, so it is with loving our neighbors. We give love toward our neighbors from the love we already have for ourselves. We know how to love ourselves; we know how we would want to be treated in a given circumstance. So, in following that, we do that for our neighbor.