by Veronica Bergschneider

Created on: February 19, 2010   Last Updated: February 23, 2010

For centuries, Christians have struggled with Jesus’ command in Luke 10:27 to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” After all, how can one love the neighbor in the way Jesus means if there is any doubt as to how to love the self? Many people perceive self-love as wrong, especially for a Christian on the daily walk with God, as they see love of oneself as a barrier to learning to love others. These misguided souls only see self-love as narcissism, where in fact, loving oneself properly will form a basis for good relationships with many others.

Mature Christians provide the best examples since Christ of how to love oneself so it is not overdone. When a person takes the lives of Jesus and the saints as examples of daily living, he or she learns to become the Good Samaritan in the parable found following the commandment to love one’s neighbor. This selection from Luke 10:28-37 details how a mature sense of self-love led a Samaritan man to render aid to a man of unknown origin who had been beaten and left for dead by a band of robbers when even a priest and a Levite had crossed the street. In those days, one would have expected the priest or the Levite, a priest in training, to stop and aid the man. Since Samaritans often kept to themselves and did not talk to people of other social or racial groups, the story demonstrates how the man’s love for himself spilled over and made him a true neighbor as Jesus meant it to the one who needed mercy. This reflects also how God expects us to take His love for humanity and show it to others as Christian maturity is attained.

In Romans 13:9-10, Saint Paul writes, “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘ Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” By saying so, he makes the point that as people clothe, feed, and provide shelter for themselves and their families, they should also assist others in need in these ways. Doing so shows love for the neighbor by helping less fortunate members of society as the helper would probably like to receive aid should he or she be found naked, hungry, or homeless one day.

Saint Paul, in those verse quoted above, says that even those with low self esteem don’t want their reputations or marriages ruined by another, so should not do

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