Will They Know We Are Christians Part 3: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

 

We romanticize hard childhoods, as if it's better for a kid to have a miserable life than a charmed one.  Yet there is at least one advantage to an upbringing of struggle and strife, which is that you quickly learn that the world is not looking out for you.  Which may seem obvious, but for children whose parents took care of everything, steered trouble away, and anticipated and met needs before they were even felt, it can be a rude awakening when no one in their adult life seems to be doing the same.

In such a space, it can be easy to just look out for number one.  And to be sure, there is something appropriate about this.  Self-awareness, self-value, and self-care are all good things.  But when they are the only things, that is not life-giving.  We all know that empathy, love, and sacrificial acts deplete us but also enrich us.  It is a profound yet simple irony of our existence that life is fullest when we empty ourselves for others.  

The Biblical mandate to "love your neighbor as yourself" is simultaneously well-known as an adage yet shockingly under-appreciated as a life challenge.  We may run the gamut when it comes to our self-esteem, but the vast majority of us are well-acquainted with the basics of loving ourselves, and we expend our whole lives doing so.  Now here comes Jesus calling us to love our neighbor in the same way.

But it stretches further.  We know from the equally famous Parable of the Good Samaritan that "neighbor" is defined very broadly, such that "loving your neighbor" means bridging wide divides to do so.  Inclusive of folks who are very different from us, who we may naturally hold grudges against or have suspicions of, we are to love even and especially them in the same way we love ourselves.

It will take our whole lives, and a full effort every day of our lives, to even contemplate let alone execute the fullness of this command.  The things we do for ourselves, to take care of and nurture and love ourselves, we are to be that way to others, even those who are very "other."  

Even folks whose parents hovered over them their whole childhoods soon learn that the world does not work this way.  No one is going around, seeing your every struggle and weakness, and helping you get through it all, with encouragement and support and grace and humor.  It can be a cruel world out there, and a crushing realization for those who grew up with parents who did love them in this way.

Ah, but in that cruel world we do experience moments of love.  A significant other, a best friend, a coach, a supervisor...every once in a while, you are blessed with someone who genuinely loves you as you would want to love yourself.  When this happens, you are surprised and grateful and overcome, aren't you? 

Now imagine that a basic command placed upon Christians is exactly this, and that Christians hear and heed that command, and practice radical and joyous and sacrificial love, committing acts of care upon others that are equivalent to what they would want for themselves.  Imagine that this happens on a daily basis, to people near to and far from those Christians, to those who are their friends but also those who have not necessarily warranted such affection.  Would that not be an arresting, noticeable, and life-affirming thing?

Is this not how we should be?  And the fact that it isn't that way, is that not damning upon us?  This is no obscure passage of Scripture, this is a commonly known thing.  Tragically, we have become inoculated by the banality of "love your neighbor as yourself."  We are aware of its existence, but we refuse to be burdened and compelled by its call upon our lives.  

This is truly a shame.  If Christians practiced "love your neighbor as yourself," the world would know.  There's still time.  Let's get to it.