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The Second Greatest
A man in Mark 12 asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.is this: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”
~Mark 12:29-31
The second of the greatest commandments according to our Lord Jesus Christ is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Each person God created is called to love. God created us in His love and for love. To genuinely love others, we must also value ourselves.
This is not an arrogant kind of self-love, but the understanding that God created something valuable in us, in our very being. If we believe this and live by this, we can find confidence and self-assurance of our place in the world. We must be careful, however. There is a fine tension in believing that and not becoming self-absorbed or boastful.
Why would God call us to love ourselves? First, God wants us to not just know, but to live as children of the King, children of God. With God and through God, we can know we are loved by our creator, just as we are. That is not to say we couldn’t improve in areas, but God loves us in our best of days, and most particularly in our worst of days.
This love of self comes not from what we do or how we look, but from realizing we are deeply valued and loved by our Creator. And realizing that every human on God’s green earth has the same promise.
So, we can love those who seem unlovable, seeing the reflection of God’s love in everyone. Maybe we can care enough about them to help them see how greatly they are loved by God as well.
God wants his love for us to flow through to others who may not know.
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