Love Self, Love Neighbor

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus (Luke 10:27b)

"Most people try to find themselves outside themselves. They seek fulfillment through work, wealth and status. Then eventually that route takes them to despair, in which their souls are broken. Only as their souls break do they turn upward to God, and then can see the way to the calm waters of his peace." Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).

"Love yourself as your neighbor." To love ourselves as our neighbor is not narcissism but a logical necessity if we are to obey Christ's command to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we don't love what our Father has made of us, we can't love our neighbor--we can only resent our neighbor as we resent ourselves. But given the frenzy with which our paparazzi populace follows the lives of the rich and famous, or the rich and famous wannabes on American Idol, it seems that most people are not that keen on themselves, much less on others.

The folks on the cover of People Magazine do seem to have it all--until you look a bit closer. The media that places them on a pedestal even more eagerly kicks them off it, and revels in airing their misery before the world as these falling stars cope with broken marriages, addictions, failure. Some give up altogether and take their own lives--though by then their life is no longer their own anyway.

Plastic Britneys. Ever notice the change in folks as they move up the ladder? I remember the first photo of Britney Spears that I saw. She was an innocent looking, smiling teen in jeans. Then the music industry gave her a make-over and within a couple years she was a pouting, anoxeric, gyrating blonde sex symbol with the same moves and sounds as half a dozen other pop stars--and she didn't seem that happy about it.

To Be, or to Pretend to Be. The world may not be clamoring to become like you and me, but at least we are something that the plastic pop icons cannot be: we are 100% unique, and winners from day one (we are the product of the 1-in-500 million sperm cells that made it to the egg first). We started out unique, and then our Father placed each of us in unique environments to mold us for unique purposes. We each have unique abilities to build upon, and unique weaknesses to overcome and learn from. Our "success", and true happiness, lie not in simply emulating others (though we can learn from them) but in discovering the unique purpose for which we were created, and then having the patience to allow our Father to mold us to achieve that purpose. As Confucius wrote,

"Rare is he who after 3 years of study does not already want to be an official." [三年学，不至於谷，不易得也]

One Body, Many Parts Jesus own disciples, James and John, asked to be elevated above the other apostles and to sit at his side (Mark 10:27). And in the earliest days of the New Testament church, distinctions and divisions arose over who was "important" and who was not. But in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Paul addressed this with a brilliant analogy, saying that a body has many parts but all are necessary because each is unique, and does something that no other part can do. As Paul said in verse 19, what would the body be if it were all one part--all one big foot, or hand, or--horrors--one big mouth!

It would have been a boring world, for our Father and us, if his children were all simply cookie cutter copies. Fortunately, we are each a Hand-signed Heart-felt original. And when we can appreciate how uniquely our Father made us, and love ourselves not for what we have made of ourselves but for what our Father has made of us, and is making of us, then we can love others as we love ourselves. Until then, we are simply resenting others as we resent ourselves.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 One Body, Many Parts
1Co 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
1Co 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
1Co 12:14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
1Co 12:16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
1Co 12:18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
1Co 12:19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?
1Co 12:20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
1Co 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"
1Co 12:22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
1Co 12:23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,
1Co 12:24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,
1Co 12:25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
1Co 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
1Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
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