Read James 2
"8 This royal law is found in the Scriptures: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." If you obey this law, you are doing right.9 But if you treat one person as being more important than another, you are sinning. You are guilty of breaking God's law." (New Century Version)
One of the problems that has been present both inside and outside of the church forever is that of preferential treatment based upon perceived status. James suggests that it must have been a problem in the early church that people were giving more attention to those whom they saw as more powerful and socially superior. The example that is shared is one that seems to be completely out of place in a faith community that says everyone receives the same grace and forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ. So we are reminded to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
In facing our own perceptions and behaviors when it comes to how we react to and treat others we at times try to will ourselves to love those that we don't find very lovable. While we can put on a good show it often comes across as fake and condescending to those we are "loving". Could it be that the real issue is not how we are loving others but our inability to love ourselves? When we don't love something about ourselves we try to distract ourselves from it in a variety of ways. One of the ways we do that is to put ourselves on the social scale and see how many others are "below us". The more we move up the scale the more we must be lovable we assume and the less others will notice those things about us. We try to fool ourselves into believing that we are better than we know we actually are. We forget that God loves us as we are and not as we think we should be.
In facing our own perceptions and behaviors when it comes to how we react to and treat others we at times try to will ourselves to love those that we don't find very lovable. While we can put on a good show it often comes across as fake and condescending to those we are "loving". Could it be that the real issue is not how we are loving others but our inability to love ourselves? When we don't love something about ourselves we try to distract ourselves from it in a variety of ways. One of the ways we do that is to put ourselves on the social scale and see how many others are "below us". The more we move up the scale the more we must be lovable we assume and the less others will notice those things about us. We try to fool ourselves into believing that we are better than we know we actually are. We forget that God loves us as we are and not as we think we should be.
Some thoughts to ponder and talk about with others:
- Have you ever been on the receiving end of actions that placed someone else ahead of you in an obvious way? How did it make you feel?
- What is it about yourself (an action, attitude, attribute, etc.) that you find the hardest to love?
- What do you think keeps you from accepting that God loves you as you are?
- What one thing could you do today to remind yourself that God loves you?
sid for years i have stugled with this situation.Im not proud of it but it took a long time for me to get past it . I thaught that i had to keep up with other people to be somebody but all i did was fool myself that i was somebody. Then one day i relized that it didnt really matter how much money i had or power or social status i had cause someday we all die and we have to face god. So all the time i spent making money to be better than someone else or power to be stonger i was only making myself weaker. matt ellenwood
ReplyDelete"But if you treat one person as being more important than another, you are sinning."
ReplyDeleteWish more people understood this.... :)