When the
lawyer asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the law?”, Jesus
answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
The first
one is rather simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The
second one, in my opinion, is a little bit more complex. The inference here is
selflessness as opposed to selfishness, that we should want for others what we
want for ourselves, and that we should treat others as we would want to be
treated.
The
question begs to be asked, how much do we love ourselves? Our behaviour towards
others is often a mirror of our inner selves. Do we love ourselves enough to
make others feel loved? I am not talking about prideful love of self that
elevates us in our minds to be above everyone else, but an appreciation of self
and our self-worth.
If we see
ourselves less than everyone else, and think nothing of ourselves, we will
think nothing of others too. You simply cannot exude love if you don’t have it
within you. How we see ourselves is usually how we see others too. If we are in
the habit of undermining ourselves, we will tend to do the same to others.
If we do
not love ourselves, we will most likely suffer from low self-esteem,
depression, anger, resentment and unhappiness and this will reflect in our
behaviour towards others. Love is much needed in this world and it needs to start
with us so that we can extend it to others.
I am generalizing
here and do acknowledge that there are exceptions to the rule. As a rule of
thumb though, lack of self-love seems to be true for a lot of people and often
it has a lot to do with our upbringing, abandonment, abuse, constant criticism etc.
This is a deep issue that requires insight into the root of self-perception and
realization that healing is needed both on the psychological and spiritual level.
All I am saying here is that you cannot assuage someone’s thirst from an empty
well so the well might need some serious attention.
As we draw
closer to God and discover our spiritual identity, healing becomes a reality
affording us an understanding of our self-worth. From there self-love is much
easier to embrace.
Some people
are natural conduits of love. It is their spiritual gift…..for the rest of us
it is a challenge in one way or another but for all of us it is a commandment. The
Saviour is the epitome of selflessness. He has left a trail for us to follow so
we can become like Him, but until then, may we allow His selfless love for all
to flow through us to our neighbour…..and lastly, if we love God, other
commandments just follow….
Your footsteps, so big and so deep
Swallow my feeble feet;
I try to keep up
To tend Your vulnerable sheep;
To gather the lost,
To clothe, to feed;
So many for my poorly
Devised shelter to keep.
Illuminate my steps dear Saviour
With Thy glorious light;
And grant me Thy power
To feed them from Thy godly heart.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Guardian by Kelsey and Jesse Lightweave)