Bad Reflections

"Love your neighbor as yourself"

Mark 12:31
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I, probably like most of you, will have that phrase stuck in my head for (hopefully) the rest of my life.  And that isn't such a bad thing.  This statement has a lot to say about God and who He is and what He wants.

And there are two sides to that story.
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Side one speaks to many people who fail to recognize the far reaching implications of the word "neighbor."  Neighbors, in this context, are not just your community, not just your friends, not just your family, and not just your country.

We are all neighbors.
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The far-reaching potential of the implementation of this phrase is litterally life changing, then.  This kind of thing changes the world.  And although so many of us know this phrase and grasp this aspect of the story, the phrase goes unnoticed.  It is just as unappreciated as the man who originally spoke the words.  Unfortunately.

However, the implementation of this phrase doesn't end the debates of how love looks and what kind of actions can be considered appropriate in the difficult contexts.  Can't love look like many different things on the surface?  Yes, probably.  Can't love be unrealistic?  Yes, probably.  Won't we find ourselves in situations where loving one person means not loving another?  Yes, probably.  Isn't it difficult to decipher whether justice and love are one in the same or one is being neglected over the other?  Yes, probably.

That doesn't change the fact that after loving God, this is our primary command as people.

Period.
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So stew on that, I suppose.  The questions above have been around and will be around for a long time, I imagine, because it's hard to answer them in an adequate way; a way that doesn't seem to compromise some other value deep within us that is a part of the way we were created.  Whether those are desires for justice or fairness or equality, they embody something true about the world, but they are subordinate to love.  Or at least should be.
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And so we find ourselves on the other side of the conversation about this original statement.  The "as yourself" part.

Now what I see as inherently a part of this statement is the assumption that you, yourself, are valuable and deserving of love.  You are, after all, everyone else's neighbor just as they are all yours, aren't you?

If you aren't worth loving and it is acceptable to hate yourself, then this statement is basically asking you to do no more than to hate all your neighbors, and that doesn't seem to do much good.  Some people might argue that does some good and reflects how the world is, but I don't think those people are right.
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I think I have seen people get to a place where what they see in the mirror isn't what they want to see.  And so they hate what it is a reflection of.

Them-self.
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What becomes problematic about this is that this statement seems to carry some weight to these individuals, however, and so they desire to still treat others well.  They want to love their neighbors.  And that is good.  They should.

But what they fail to realize is that this statement also comments on the inherent value of people.  The inherent value of not only your neighbors, but of yourself.

They fail to see that no matter how bad that reflection gets and no matter how much our neighbors fail to love us the way they love themselves, God loves us.  God loves you.  He loves me.  And He loves our neighbors.  Which are again, you and me (among others, of course.).
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God is love.  And to think that he is anything else first and foremost is a misunderstanding of the person of God which leads to numerous misunderstandings of who we are and who our neighbors are.  What a grave mistake that could be.

What damage that could do to the world.
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There may be things to be mad about.  I won't doubt that.  There may be things to be sorry about.  I'm sure there are plenty.  There may be things to regret.  I'm positive that's also true.

But none of those facts affect whatsoever that you are loved and it is right and appropriate to accept that love for yourself.

Love yourself and know that is okay, because God loves you too.  And He only loves what is good.

You are good.
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Peace.