What Jesus said about ... (series)

 What Jesus said about ... love.

"Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37

And that’s where the problem lies. Love your neighbour as you love yourself. It’s almost too difficult for some people; and do you know why?

It’s because too many people just do not love themselves. Yes … that’s right … they don’t really love themselves.

They find faults with themselves and see no reason to like or love who they are. Many have a problem with their self-image or about their character in some way.

They think they don’t look pretty enough for today’s society. 

And it is not just our physical appearance that some of us find cause to dislike; the shape of our nose, or our ears or whatever else we think is wrong.

Some people don’t love themselves because they feel inadequate in some way or other. They feel they’re too shy perhaps, or not bright or clever enough like their friends, or not successful as others at work or in business.

Many people sadly conjure up any reason they can think of which erodes their self-confidence, their self-esteem, and leads them not to like or love themselves. 

So ... where do we go from here? First of all: Learn to love yourself. 

You are a creation of God. Jesus taught us to call Him Father. So we are His children. In His eyes we are perfect. There are no rejects from God's production line.

Once we learn to love ourselves, regardless of the imperfections we wrongly believe that we have, we will then start to love other people. And by love, we mean "caring" for other people. And by "caring" we mean doing something about it when we meet someone needing our help, our care and our love. Not passively caring from the comfort of our situation.

And as we learn to love our neighbours as ourselves; so too will we love God our Father. 

Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34

We cannot possibly love as Jesus has loved. He is Divine. We are not. But it should not stop us from trying.

God loved us so much that He did something about it.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16