LOVE MY NEIGHBOR AS MYSELF

 



LOVE MY NEIGHBOR AS MYSELF


Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is, love thy neighbor as thyself. No other commandment is greater than these. Mark. 12:31

A member of an Internet chat group on Christian theology expressed his frustration in attempting to carry out this second of Jesus's commandments. He explained that he had no difficulty in loving close friends and relatives, but that he did not see how it was possible to feel true love for a total stranger - although he understood that he should love everyone as his brothers in Christ. He knew and accepted the theory, but experienced trouble with the practical application.

The writer poses a question that is rarely raised, and yet is at the heart of a truly Christian life. At times I have heard someone say, of a person with whom he has had some friction, "I do love him." But he doesn't actually mean it. What he means is, "I know that, as a Christian and follower of Jesus's teachings, I should love him - and I want to be a good Christian." That is sound reasoning and a good intention; but it is not the same as experiencing the emotion - the feeling of love - for that person, but it is not good enough. It is not good enough, because that person is the object of God's love, and if he is deserving of God's love, then he is certainly deserving of ours. How is it possible to acquire that kind of love?

When we can conceive of ourselves as eternal spirits that are each a branch of the vine that is our Source, then that neighbor is not just a separate branch; we are parts of the same branch, and in that sense, he literally is part of myself. A person who can actually conceive of himself, and his neighbor alike, as a spiritual son of God, rather than as a body is in a position to think more like the divine being he truly is. He and the neighbor are related as branches of the same vine, and therefore as children of the same Father.

In a previous post, on “Trinity: The Son” we saw that the term “God the Son” actually refers to a union of these children of God, each created as an extension of the Father. We also saw that there is a oneness in this unity. Therefore, this neighbor is literally a part of myself. And so, I can love him as myself.

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