Episode 902 Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 902 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Patrick Annuci: [00:00:08] I'm Patrick , Annuci from dad hackers, and I challenge you to become the man that you are called and created to be one way to be inspired to do this is to listen to this show. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.
[00:00:23]Scott Maderer: [00:00:23] and when that happens, then it gets easier to love ourselves. So it's a feedback loop where if we're finding it easy to love ourselves, then it reminds us that we need to love God and love our neighbor first. The same way that we love ourselves. And if we're struggling with those moments of self doubt and fear and depression and all of the other things that pile into our head and tell us we aren't worthy.
[00:00:51] Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, [00:01:00] then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your truth. In the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:17]And today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others. I talk with you about mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 36. I share how this is a commandment that all others are based on. And I share why we aren't told to love ourselves. And yet it's included in this commandment, mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 34 goes like this.
[00:01:41] One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating, noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer. He asked him of all the commandments, which is the most important. The most important one answered Jesus. Is this here? Oh, Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is [00:02:00] one. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
[00:02:06] The second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Said, teacher, the man replied, you are right in saying that God is one and that there is no other, but him to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength and to love your neighbors as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
[00:02:28] When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And from then on no one dared, ask him more questions. Now this passage about love your neighbors, as you love yourself is in the actual Bible. And it's one of those things. That's actually quoted a lot by people.
[00:02:53] And one of the things that it said in this is if you think about it, what it says is love God and love your neighbor. [00:03:00] And it doesn't imply or say anything directly about loving yourself, but it actually does, because if you look at the language, it says, love your neighbor as yourself. See the truth is that we don't usually have much of a problem in loving ourselves.
[00:03:19] Now, sometimes that happens sometimes. Depression or we have other issues that cause us to struggle with loving ourselves. Sometimes we feel that we're not a very good person when in reality we are, but the truth is most of the time we have a pretty easy time taking care of ourselves. It's actually recognizing that other people need things that we tend to struggle with.
[00:03:46] And I think that's why these two commandments is what Jesus is saying. All other commandments are based upon all of the rules that we're supposed to follow are based upon [00:04:00] these two ideas, because at the end of the day, the truth is if you first love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strings.
[00:04:11] That it's a lot easier to recognize God in others to see the divinity and others. And when we can see that others are doing the best they can and struggling through life, the best they can, but they also have a little bit of God inside of them. Then it gets easier to love our neighbors. And what's true is when we recognize that our neighbors.
[00:04:40] Have a little bit of God inside of them. It's a lot easier to also then see that divinity inside ourselves to see the fact that we're doing the same as others. We're working through things as best we can. We're dealing with the struggles of the day to day. But at [00:05:00] the end of the moment, at the end of the day, it comes down to letting things go to God and letting things go.
[00:05:09] That way so that we can be at peace with the fact that we also have a moment of God inside of us, that we also have that little piece of the divine we are made in God's image, which means that we have God within us. We aren't told to love ourselves because honestly at the end of the day that usually comes easily.
[00:05:35] Sometimes it does it. Sometimes we're struggling to love ourselves. And when we struggle there, this commandment still works because when we look to God first and look to our neighbor second and do the things we need to do to serve and take care of them, to serve and take care of our relationship with God, then the truth is what ends up happening is [00:06:00] we can find it a little easier to love ourselves.
[00:06:03] We can find it a little easier to see that we are worthy, that we are worth forgiving, that we are worth allowing to make mistakes, that we are worth serving. And we are worth that moment of the godhood just the same as our neighbor is. And when that happens, then it gets easier to love ourselves. So it's a feedback loop where if we're finding it easy to love ourselves, then it reminds us that we need to love God and love our neighbor first, the same way that we love ourselves.
[00:06:39] And if we're struggling with those moments of self doubt and fear and depression and all of the other things that pile into our head and tell us we aren't working. Then if we first turned to God and second to our neighbor, it helps us recognize that we too are worthy of love [00:07:00] because the truth is that's what this passage boils down to this passage boils down to recognizing that all of us are worthy of love.
[00:07:10] All of us are worthy of that relationship with God. All of us are worthy of that relationship with each other. It's not about earning it. It's about being gifted it by God. That is what grace really is. Thanks for listening.
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