Jesus says we must love our neighbours as we love ourselves, what if we hate ourselves, do we have to then hate our neighbours?
2007-04-21 08:48:43 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It seems to me, that here Jesus is speaking into a context (much like our own day and age) where self-love is in abundance and where we have a famine in the land when it comes to love for others. Jesus was not speaking a word (in this particular case) to people suffering from lack of self esteem, but rather (it seems to me) was speaking to a people who were full of self-love and prized themselves way above anyone else.
Jesus was not playing down the need for people to have a healthy love for self. I know the reality of clinical depression among close friends and family members. Where there is self-esteem seriously lacking then, no doubt, the person must cultivate a healthy love for self before they will be able to effectively focus their love on others.
Jesus' radical point: I need little encouragement to love myself - I need lots of encouragement (more like a kick in the butt) to focus my love beyond myself and to offer it to the world. And for comfort, John 15 seems to indicate that if we start by offering love to others we will find ourselves experiencing ("abiding, living in") Jesus' love in ourselves (John 15:9-12).
2007-04-21 09:05:47 · answer #1 · answered by thundercatt9 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you're working 17 + hour days and your neighbours wake you up again and again despite having your ears filled with earplugs and having a cushion tied around your head and sleeping in the smallest bedroom because it's furthest from the party wall...Loving your neighbours isn't going to happen!
2007-04-21 09:26:25 · answer #2 · answered by Avon 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nope, What jesus meant was, we must love our neighbours whether we love ourselves or not!!!!
But why are some neighbours so damned hard to love!!! they dont exactly make it easy for themselves do they, always stickning their nose in other neighbours business, twitchy curtains, verbal diarreah and gossip... i hate the clicky clicky thing!!!!!...
but hey, i love myself so im halfway there!!!!!!!!!!!
2007-04-21 08:59:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
good question. i think of you advise Mat: 22: 37-40. some Christians do in comparison to themselves, or guard themselves in some strategies. in spite of the undeniable fact that, very virtually all Christians feed, fabric, and obtain guard for themselves. i think that Jesus replaced into taking approximately those very fundamentals desires. He placed a substantial emphasis on giving to the destructive, and looking out after each others commonplace desires.
2016-10-03 08:51:09 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are expected to love ourselves. The WAY that we do that is without thinking (we automatically do so, unless we are diturbed)
THAT is how we ought to love one another.
2007-04-21 08:53:45 · answer #5 · answered by alan h 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i love myself, but my neighbours p*ss me off
2007-04-21 08:54:14 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have to learn to love yourself first,before anything else and things follows...
2007-04-21 09:16:02 · answer #7 · answered by happygirl 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
neighbours can be a pain in the @rse....as for loving them....no thanks, all though Lucy down the street is worth some loving
2007-04-21 08:54:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
when i try to "love our neighbors" , they see me comin' over with a plate of homebaked brownies, and / or cookies, and i hear "lock the door" and "draw the shades down, quick" LOL! "
2007-04-21 08:56:13 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you hate yourself you are not capable of loving another.
2007-04-21 08:52:45 · answer #10 · answered by Epona Willow 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋