Matthew 22.34-40

LOVING ONESELF

Matthew 22.34-40

"I don't go to church, Vicar, but I believe in doing unto others as I would wish them to do unto me".

How often have you heard those words as a summary of the Christian faith?

Such people think Christianity is only about living a good life. A good life which is based upon self-interest.

Therefore, because I do not want to be lied to, cheated, mugged or even murdered, I do not lie, cheat, mug or even murder other people. It is a policy based upon self-preservation.

Now don't get me wrong. As a common sense policy of getting along with other people, it has much to commend it. In fact, the world would be a much better place if everyone adopted such a policy.

However, whilst it may be the basis of humanistic living, it is not the basis of Christian living.

Hence, when Jesus was asked to summarise the Christian faith, he said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind {and your neighbour as yourself)'.

Thus, in a few simple words from the Books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus in the Old Testament, Jesus summarised the 613 religious commandments of his day.

First of all, we must love God totally, and that involves our heart, soul and mind, and secondly, we express that love, by loving each other as we love ourselves.

And that is where the crunch comes in. Loving our neighbour as ourselves.

Because we do not always find it easy to love ourselves, we often find it difficult to love our neighbour.

Let me try to explain what I mean.

If we look at ourselves in a mirror, we see much that we can admire.

For instance, we may see a person who is hardworking, and therefore we find it easy to love a person who is also hardworking.

We may see a person who is honest, and therefore we find it easy to love a person who is also honest.

We may see a person who has a sense of justice, and therefore we find it easy to love a person who also has a sense of justice.

In other words, I would suggest, we find it easy to love a person who reflects those same qualities, which we admire in our own lives.

So far, so good.

But what about those qualities which we find it hard to accept in others, and which, as a consequence, make it difficult for us to love them?

Maybe it's their ambitious streak. Maybe it's their unforgiving spirit. Maybe it's their meanness.

How can we overcome these barriers to love?

The answer, my friends, is to go back to that mirror and look again at ourselves.

But this time, try to look beneath that surface.

Try to discover those parts of our personality which we find difficult to love, and which we prefer, either to overlook, or pretend do not exist.

If we look deep enough, we may well find that we too are ambitious, unforgiving or even mean.

In other words, those traits of personality which we find hard to accept in others, are invariably the same traits of personality that we find hard to accept within ourselves.

But Jesus commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves.

So how then can we begin to love ourselves, ‘warts and all' so that we can begin to love our neighbour, 'warts and all’?

The answer is to be found in God's love for us, as expressed in human form through the person of Jesus Christ.

If we look at the New Testament, we find that no one was outside the orbit of God's love.

Jesus not only loved the Pharisees, who tried to entrap him with the question concerning the greatest commandment, but he also loved the tax gatherers, sinners and prostitutes. One group tried to hide their human weakness and the other owned their human weakness.

The love of God, as revealed through Jesus Christ, was unconditional, undeserved, as is also his love for you and for me.

Now if Jesus can love us, 'warts and all', we ought also to be able to love our neighbours 'warts and all'.

This then is the basis of our love towards our neighbour, namely, that "we love because God first loved us" to quote the words of the First Letter of St John.

The humanist may well sum up his belief with the words "Do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you”.

But the Christian goes further and says, "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind" (and "your neighbour as yourself”).