“As yourself” April 9, 2007
Posted by broadwell in love.add a comment
“Caregivers love God by loving others.” My wife is a caregiver. She oozes compassion. I want to be a caregiver. I think Jesus expects it of those who belong to him. Matthew 22 34-40 is telling. In fact “on these two commandments depend the whole Law and Prophets.”
I saved some email correspondence from about two years ago when I was pondering the question of how to approach the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.” I have not asked permission to post their thoughts; however, their identities will remain undisclosed to protect the innocent.
“…yeah I’ve thought about that too. I guess the most natural human inclination is love for self. We do it naturally. Even people who appear to abhor themselves are ultimately grounded in self-interest. So I guess it’s just God’s way of using a primal instinct we all have to show us what we need to do. The way we fight for our own survival, the way we meet our own needs, the way we play to our own interests…we should instead put our neighbor in the place of ourselves-we should want their good over our own. Of course, our sinfulness makes this impossible; this makes us cling to Christ. We need Christ to do this work through us because it is completely against our own nature.”
“McQuilken’s chapter on love was a really good chapter, and his definition cut me to the core as I thought about my inability to express genuine love to people. He said, ‘love is a desire and an affection for the welfare of another that moves one to a commitment to act on the other’s behalf.’ He goes on to say that love has both internal and external aspects. Internally, love is motive, disposition, and affection. Externally, love is a choice and action. I think we think of only one aspect at a time.”
More to come…
