Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second commandment is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. Jesus is distilling the entire religious tradition into two: God and neighbor.
I spent years trying to follow a hundred rules. Then my therapist asked, 'Are you kind to yourself the way you're kind to others?' I realized I wasn't. I held myself to impossible standards. And I was using that harshness to justify harshness toward others. Jesus's second commandment includes loving yourself. Not narcissistically, but genuinely. The way you love others should be how you love yourself. And the way you love yourself should reflect what you understand about being loved by God. It's a triangle—divine love, self-love, neighbor-love. They're connected. You can't fake one without the others breaking down.
No comments yet. Be the first.