Biblical Answer

Understanding the Commandment to Love Our Neighbors as Ourselves

The commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves can be a challenging one to understand and apply in our lives, especially in a world filled with distractions and noise. To begin with, we must recognize that loving our neighbors as ourselves does not mean feeling fond of them or finding them attractive. Rather, it means treating them with the same kindness, compassion, and respect that we would want for ourselves. This is a profound treatment for failure and shame, as it reminds us that our problem is not that we have failed to love others, but that we have fallen in love with what we can receive from them.

The Importance of Loving God First

The commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves is closely tied to our love for God. As Augustine notes, we cannot love ourselves first and foremost and love God first and foremost. Rather, if we love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, we will naturally love our neighbors as ourselves. This is because our love for God gives us our true identity and meaning, and reminds us that we are not autonomous individuals creating ourselves constantly. Instead, we are beings created in God's image, deriving our meaning from outside ourselves.

Putting the Commandment into Practice

So how can we put the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves into practice in a world of noise and distractions? The answer is simple: we must act as if we do love our neighbors. This means treating them with kindness, compassion, and respect, even when we don't feel like it. As C.S. Lewis notes, we do not manufacture affectionate feelings, but rather act as if we do love our neighbors, and we find that this action leads to a deeper sense of love and connection with others. By putting the commandment into practice, we can experience the great secret that loving our neighbors as ourselves brings us joy, peace, and fulfillment. We can learn to love our neighbors as ourselves, not because we feel like it, but because we know that God loves us and wants us to love others in the same way.