Likewise

1 John 4:⁷ [NKJV] “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone  who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” [with emphasis].

Loving one another as our Scripture reference highlights is otherwise known as horizontal love. In Jesus’ response to the question, “…what should I do to inherit eternal life?”, the first part of Jesus’ response was, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And the second part of Jesus’ response was, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” Please read Luke 10:25-28.

How does one achieve loving one’s neighbour as oneself? The first question is, how do you love yourself? You cannot love yourself better than you currently love yourself. You love yourself to the extent at which you know how to love yourself. So, you should love your neighbour to the extent at which you know how to love yourself. It is a challenge to many of us as it was for the Jews. The Jews really embraced the vertical love – “Love your God”, but struggled a lot with the horizontal love.

And that is why he asked Jesus the follow up question, “Who is my neighbour?’” And Jesus told him the story of the good Samaritan. At the end of that story, Jesus asked him another question, “Which of these three, the Levite, the priest or the Samaritan, was the neighbour of this man?” And he said, “I suppose the Samaritan.” Jesus responded, “You have answered correctly, go and do likewise.” What this means is that anyone I can reach out to and help, is my neighbour. And Jesus says you are to love your neighbour as yourself.

Assuming it is possible for you to see yourself on the floor needing help, what would you do? Will you be concerned about what is right to do or not? Would being politically correct or being aligned with Levitical priesthood matter to you at a time like that? All those things would not even come to mind. Your number one objective would be to help yourself. Guess what? That is what you have been doing everyday – You have been helping yourself eat, move around, save, stay healthy and the list goes on. God is saying, go and do likewise for other people.

Prayer: Father, because I am born of God and I know God, I will love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind. And I will love people as I love myself, in Jesus Name. Amen!