love thy neighbor AS…
I was just turning off of McFarland Blvd, a main strip of highway that stretches from one side of my county to the other, when I saw a homeless man standing just on the on ramp to the interstate. As I passed him, every possible stereotypical thought ran through my head…” Why doesn’t he just get a job”, “If I give him money, he will probably just buy alcohol and cigarettes.” I rationalized my continued driving with, “I really have to pick up my friend. I just don’t have time to stop right now. I’m sure someone else will help him.” That’s what my “self” was thinking. No sooner than when I merged on the interstate did, I get this nauseating feeling in my gut. One minute I had convinced myself it was ok to keep driving and the next my stomach was in excruciating pain. For the next four miles I begged God for another chance. I prayed, “God, if you just let me see this man one more time, I will give him what I have in my pocket.” My hands were clammy, my forehead bubbling with sweat…in an air-conditioned truck. This was by far one of the most miserable drives of my life. I had an opportunity to put someone else’s needs ahead of mine, and I completely blew it! More on that later…
Let’s look at a passage of scripture for a few minutes
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. And second, is like namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 KJV
As Christians, this has more than likely become a block of scriptures that we have heard at least a hundred times, maybe even hundreds of times. It has become a staple sermon for many pastors who cover it at least once or twice a year. We’ve heard it at Vacation Bible School, summer camps, and the list goes on. I would venture to say that if you’ve called yourself a Christian for several years, you may even have it memorized. I can say that it is not a scripture to be taken lightly. At first glance, it may come across as harmless. It may even seem gentle and sweet. I assure you; it is anything but that.
Now, I know you are wondering, “how can this scripture be harmful?” Let me start off by clarifying. It can be harmful to your “self”. I want to take a couple of minutes and focus on the second commandment. “And the second, is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Christ gave us two very specific commands we are to follow as Christians. This second command, which is only one of two commandments, comes second only to loving God with everything we have. Now, I don’t know about you, but that makes me uncomfortable. Why? Because, in just these two commandments, we find out quickly that following Christ costs us everything. In fact, it actually costs us our “self”.
I have heard it preached that “you must first learn to love yourself before you can love others as yourself.” God knows that I have certainly attended to “me” many times. Even to the point of ignoring others around me. If you noticed in the blog title, I spelled out AS in all caps. I did that because the Bible doesn’t teach us to love ourselves before we love others. In fact, self love is actually anti-Gospel. Christ spent his ministry teaching of God’s love, mercy, grace, and doing unto others. This commandment should not spur us to find better ways to love ourselves. What it should do, is convict us to get outside of ourselves. Loving my neighbor as myself means that I’m willing to put my neighbor BEFORE myself. If we follow Christ all through the teachings of the Gospels, we find a man who put Himself in the most uncomfortable positions just to help someone else. I can assure you that it wasn’t His love of self that put Him on the cross. No, it was His love for His Father and His will first, and secondly it was His love for us!
Society today is filled with plenty of ways to love ourselves and make ourselves “happy”. If you spend more than five seconds on facebook there is no doubt we have perfected loving ourselves. We are either constantly complaining, being offended, trying to win an argument, and we love to take selfies…No, I’m not saying that everyone who takes a selfie has an evil plan. What I am saying is that we prove daily that we are certainly aware of ourselves. We’ve become a people all about self. As “Christians” we have lost sight of this very important commandment and we’ve bought into this lie to just be “yourself”. We are wrapped up in our own false sense of security of being our “selves” that we miss the big picture. What if we, like the good samaritan, stopped long enough to notice our neighbor broke down and beaten up in a ditch so that we could actually lend a helping hand. How much more fulfilling would life be if I put something of mine on hold long enough to help my “neighbor” accomplish his goal. Would it kill me to simply put myself in an uncomfortable situation in order to make someone else comfortable? Yes! And that’s the point!
Back to my story of me and the homeless man…As fast as I could I got to the next exit and jumped right back on the interstate. I’m sure I drove over the speed limit just hoping to settle this uncomfortable feeling in my gut. As I drove down the exit ramp I noticed this homeless man walking under the overpass to my side of the interstate. A huge sense of relief fell over me. I couldn’t get my window down fast enough to give him the money I had. I wish I could tell you that I was moved with compassion upon my initial sighting of this man. Some of you will see this as a story of redemption, and while God in His sovereign Grace allowed it to happen, I still majorly jacked up an opportunity to be Christ to this man. Even as I’m typing this story, it is clear that even my prayer for a second chance was selfish. I prayed because I felt like the biggest jerk on the planet and I just wanted to feel better about my “self”. The truth is, I completely missed it, in every aspect. I’m thankful for God’s grace, but I should always strive to see their needs above mine. This is just one example of how I have missed it so many times. Trust me, just ask my wife and kids…I miss it A LOT!!!
OK, let me wrap this up and put a bow on it. You are not supposed to learn to love yourself before you can love others. That was the whole problem in the beginning. That’s why the Jewish man laid in the ditch and people walked right past him. That’s why the Samaritan woman at the well had to go to the well at times when no Jewish person would be there. That’s why Peter denied Christ three times. Ultimately, it’s why Judas betrayed Jesus. That’s also why I continued to drive right past the man in need in order to fulfill my needs…” Self-love” …Society has never been in short supply of it. Loving my neighbor AS myself means that I have to see my neighbor AS myself. Stop loving yourself long enough to love the family right next door to you. Warning, it will cost you. I’d be lying if I told you, it wouldn’t cost you greatly. But the spiritual fulfillment you will receive by doing this far outweighs any gratification you can give yourself. And the greatest part of this is that God gets the Glory, and you satisfy His will and ultimately you die to “self”.
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