Biblical Answer

Understanding the Command to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

The Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. However, it's not always easy to understand what this means, especially when we're busy or struggling to feel affectionate towards others. The apostle Paul reminds us that the rule for loving our neighbor is "perfectly simple": act as if you loved them. When we do this, we find that loving our neighbor becomes a natural part of our behavior. We don't need to manufacture affectionate feelings or worry about whether we love our neighbor; we simply need to act with love towards them.

The Nature of Biblical Love

Biblical love is not just about feeling warm and fuzzy towards others. It's about actively planning and acting for their welfare. It's about displaying a set of behaviors that demonstrate our love for them, even if we don't feel like it. This is a key point to understand: biblical love is not just about emotions, but about actions. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we're not just feeling a certain way towards them; we're actively doing things that show we care about their well-being. This is what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.

The Key Question: Does My Love for Self Limit My Love for Others?

So, how can we tell whether we truly love our neighbor as Christ would have us love? The key question to ask is: does my love for self limit the expression of my love for the other person, or does my love for the other limit my love for myself? When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we're not putting our own needs and desires above theirs. Instead, we're willing to put ourselves out for their benefit, even if it's difficult or uncomfortable. This is the kind of love that Christ calls us to, and it's the kind of love that will change our lives and the lives of those around us. By acting as if we loved our neighbor, we find that loving them becomes a natural part of our behavior, and we begin to experience the joy and fulfillment that comes from living out the command to love our neighbor as ourselves.