When Jesus gave The Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) He made an assumption about you and me.
After He told us to love God with everything we have, Jesus commands us to “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Instead of getting into the debate about who our neighbor is (we’ll go into that more when LifePoint kicks off July 18), think about what Jesus is saying.
Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Question:
What if you don’t love yourself?
If I don’t love myself, how can I love someone else. How can I carry out this part of The Greatest Commandment if I don’t love myself?
The world we live in beats us down telling us that we aren’t good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, likable enough, fit enough… the list is endless. The world attempts to take away any self esteem you may have that might actually lead to you caring about yourself, and far too often the world succeeds. In my life when I have had a breakthrough and am actually in a state where I can honestly look myself in the mirror and know that I love myself, I come under this huge attack telling me that I am full of myself, I am arrogant, I am cocky, the list goes on and on.
(Sidenote… Ask Jennifer, ask people who are close to me and they will tell you how unbeliavably insecure I have been in my life. I do love myself because quite honestly I could never love God the way He desreves, my wife the way she deserves or my son the way he deserves if I didn’t… but sometimes it is a struggle.)
Question:
If Jesus loves you, with all your sin, imperfections, all your flaws, wrinkles, chins, pimples, rolls… then why can’t you love yourself?
LifePoint, if we are truly going to reach our potential we need to see ourselves as Jesus sees us… with love.
Love On!!!
