Loving Your Neighbour as Yourself

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself." - Galatians 5:14

Now, we’re all heard this commandment being mentioned time and again. In fact, many of us would have this commandment engraved in the deep trenches of our minds ... I hope! However, as much as we could go on about how we should go about caring and showing kindness to the people around us, there is a catch - a prerequisite - before we can do precisely that.

This precondition is found in the second half of the commandment – love your neighbour as yourself. As obvious as it may seem, we are only able to love others as much as we love ourselves!

Perhaps in this Asian culture that we were brought up in, openly declaring that we are in love with ourselves will only result in us being labelled as narcissistic. (Vain!) Still, there are many, many more subtle ways in which we are to care for ourselves. With that being said, staring longingly in front of the mirror admiring our wonderful selves should only be done in private...

I guess the first step in fulfilling this is to accept ourselves the way we are. We have read about how the world keeps telling us that we are not good enough. However, beyond ignoring those calls, we should actually remind ourselves that we are worthy of genuine love and concern. If we think lowly of ourselves, our own insecurity will be a major hindrance in us offering care and kindness to others.

We are familiar with the Golden Rule – ‘to do unto others what you want others to do unto you’. Certainly, we should not be things that would be harmful to ourselves as well. This ranges from seemingly small issues such as constantly and unreasonably blaming ourselves for all the bad things that happen, to major problems such as drugs and casual sex.

The bible tells us that our bodies are God’s temple, where the Holy Spirit dwells in. (1 Cor 6:19) Therefore, we have even more reason to take care of it physically. Intentionally hurting our bodies, be it cutting ourselves with blades or depriving ourselves of food (leading to conditions such as anorexia), not only harms our physical being, but also violates the temple of God!

Another aspect of loving ourselves is that of our thoughts. Philippians 4:8 states: ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things’. Hence, we should learn to filter out all the negative thoughts, and convert them into positive ones! Gone would be the days of labelling ourselves as dumb and useless and instead, remember that we are fearfully and wonderfully made! (Ps 139:14)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Therefore, it is crucial that we learn to do just that. After all, think about it: If God loves you, and you love yourself, doesn’t that make two of the most important figures in your own life?