“Love your neighbor as your self” is a biblical injunction given by Christ Jesus himself. It is one of two new summary laws, with the other being that you should “love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind“.
A key component of loving your neighbor as yourself which a lot of people keep missing is the second aspect, “as yourself”.
First things first, you can never love someone more than they love themselves. Why? It is a waste. Someone who doesn’t love himself will be incapable of accepting love from others.
Secondly, you can never love others more than you love yourself, cos you will always subconsciously use yourself as a standard unit for measuring love towards others.
When you love someone, you treat them in the best possible way. How do you decide the best possible way to treat someone? By asking yourself “if I get treated like this, will I be gladdened or saddened by it”?
One mistake people keep making is expecting love from someone who is yet to love themselves. It is like expecting a thirsty man to give you water to wash your feet.
Look at the people you expect love from but keep letting you down, look at how they treat themselves. From what they consume as food to what they consume as information. From how they exercise their body as exercise, to how they train their mental faculty. From how they relax and rest to how they relate with God.
All of that should paint you a picture of what is the best you can expect from others.
Develop healthy behaviors, respect yourself, take care of your health, keep yourself informed, take out cynicism and toxicity out of your life, then you can learn to mirror the same into the life of others.
Hurt people hurt people. Don’t hurt yourself then try to fix others. Just as importantly, learn to identify those who are hurt, so as to avoid them getting you hurt and putting you in a cycle of hurting and being hurt.
Is it safe to say loved people love people, or loved people love their neighbors as themselves?
Spread the word, love yourself, keep loving, stay loved.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator and Creative Writer.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. @IJoswil
