by Dave Hughes

Created on: August 21, 2009   Last Updated: September 01, 2009

Love your neighbor as yourself holds many meanings. Its simplicity appeals a child while its deeper wisdom provides comfort and direction to the sage.

Upon first hearing the phrase, one's natural response is rapt attention, awaiting some exposition of the statement regarding its application to the people and situations that make up everyday life. Yet the words stand alone. No further explanation or qualification modifies its straightforward lesson: that the right and proper relationship between and among every human being is love, and that love is to be absolute, thorough, and unconditional in every respect.

The key to love is knowledge. No one knows anyone as completely as they know themselves. Within such a full understanding of the self lay many pitfalls that hinder complete acceptance of every word or deed, and there are many who, upon reflectance, dislike or, in fact, despise that persona who has behaved in ways that cause great pain. Some are shattered by what they see inside themselves.

More so abhor that portion of themselves that they deny its very existence. Instead of seeking some method of change through appropriate penance, they vilify others in whom they recognize similar traits and tendencies. This method works so well at helping them hide (from themselves) those faults that the same process becomes a ready means of retaining false virtue by attaching any sort of negative behavior to others. In a short time, every acquaintance becomes flawed and, thereby, something less than the person who truly is at fault for harboring the darkest parts of a personality well out of sight of any attempt to discover and correct the problem.

The essence of love is knowledge. To love oneself means knowing and understanding the humanity behind each and every behavior so completely that accepting forgiveness becomes a major part of living with ourselves. The very same individual who formed that new commandment preached about forgiveness that stretched beyond common measure, and it is precisely that level of forgiveness that allows us to look into the darkest corners of our minds, recognize our flaws in character for what they are, and accept that, while we may find our own faults unforgivable, it is simply not so.

We are ultimately saved by the realization that our forgiveness is in the hands of a much higher authority than our own.

The root of that forgiveness is love; not the conditional emotion we hold for those that please us and appeal to us, but he love that blossoms from the full and infinitely deep knowledge of who and what we are in the eye of the Creator.

The new commandment calls upon us to learn the essence of love and to apply it without qualification to every single sentient being, because it is only through such love that we are driven to preserve Creation. In its finer form, that emotional, intellectual, and heartfelt bond that is the foundation of humanity, love will ultimately prove our success in the face of any obstacle.

It is that love which renders humanity worthy of propagating life universally and without which we will be yet another failed experiment amid the totality of nature.

Finally, the phrase retains its simplicity. Worthy of endless commentary, no more is needed than the realization that love is not our invention but God's. It remains only for humanity to follow the course.

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