Loving isn't really easy

No one said loving was easy. Falling is love is stupid easy, but loving, it actually requires work. We here the phrase do unto others as you would have them do for you(Matthew 7:12), but we forget that Jesus says Love yourself . When Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 That simple statement “Love your neighbour as yourself” is huge. God commands us to LOVE others, but in the same breath he says LOVE yourself. He tells us to value ourselves as we value others. I believe we have forgotten how to love ourselves.

1 Corinthians 13 New International Version (NIV) says:

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

We have remember this is how we love others, but this is also how we love ourselves as well. Ask yourself if you can follow these directions equally with other people as you do yourself. If you are lacking in either area, much work needs to correct this problem. Learn how to love properly either yourself or others. And may you have the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, and it will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)