Leviticus 19:18
‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as your self. I am the Lord.’
My focus today is on the ‘love your neighbor as yourself part’. Humans are known generally to be a really selfish and self seeking lot. We’d instinctively do almost anything to make ourselves as comfortable as possible and protect our interests as much as possible. Even airlines advice that you save yourself before your child, in an emergency.
The commandment to love others(especially those we would consider undeserving of our love and care) as our selves seen through this perspective just shows us how much God expects us to love other people. Since we all love ourselves so much, we are asked to love other people just as much as we love ourselves! Its all over scripture. This love matter. So how do we practice this?
Maybe its time we stopped gloating over those not as good as we are. Maybe its time we took the effort to protect the dignity of our fellow humans, however rich or poor. Maybe its noticing and being sensitive to the pain of others. Maybe its putting yourself in the shoes of other people.
This is not necessarily a call to put others before us to the detriment of our own well being. God still wants us to love ourselves and He expects us too to treat other people, whatever their social class, with the same care, dignity and respect as we would ourselves.
Shalom