Commanded to love God more than we love ourselves?

[St. SteVen]

Thinking about the Greatest Commandment question posed to Jesus and the two great commands of Christ in response.

All three synoptic gospels render the (mis)quote from Deuteronomy differently. Which raises its own set of questions.
Anyone that has worked through that, please weigh in to explain. Thanks. All five scriptures are quoted at the bottom of this post.

In Luke 10:27 we read:
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;
2) and, Love your neighbor as yourself.

- So, we are to love God more than we love ourselves?
- We are only to love our neighbor as ourselves.
- Do we love ourselves with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?
- Do we love our neighbors with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?

We are also taught to love the unlovable. (like our neighbor?)

- Is God lovable?
- Has the church created a caricature of God that is unlovable? (I would say, "Yes.")
- How can we love a God like that with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18 NIV
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people,
but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

• Matthew 22:37
  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
  
  
• Mark 12:30
  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
  
  
• Luke 10:27
  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
  and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

/

 

[ElieG12]

If you don't love God... you are not loving yourself.

 

[St. SteVen]

If you don't love God... you are not loving yourself.

How so?

/

 

[ElieG12]

God is the source of the life and the One who maintains everything functioning under his statutes, so we can trust that his creation will do what is expected. What would happen if God decides not no keep the planet oxigenated any more? If he decides that the soil won't produce more plants? If he decides not to bring rain over us any more?

Besides that, our hope for an eternal future depends on Him keeping His promise and staying true to His goal for the human race to exist and be happy on this planet He gave us.

Rev. 21:3 With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.

Besides that: isn't He, who created us, the One who knows best what is good for us? For example, the Bible talks about the psychological damage we do to ourselves when we are cruel to others (Prov. 11:17)... It is a warning that God gives us about something we should not do so as not to harm ourselves. If He created us, we depend on Him to tell us what things we should not do so as not to hurt ourselves.

Is. 48:17 This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel:
“I, Jehovah, am your God,
The One teaching you to benefit yourself,
The One guiding you in the way you should walk.
18 If only you would pay attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would become just like a river
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your offspring would be as many as the sand
And your descendants as its grains.
Their name would never be cut off or annihilated from before me.”

Also He can instruct us about things we would never know. For example: in what chronological order he created the things that exist, or in what condition are those who have died and if there is any hope for them, what awaits the planet in the future, etc.

 

[St. SteVen]

God is the source of the life and the One who maintains everything functioning under his statutes, so we can trust that his creation will do what is expected. What would happen if God decides not no keep the planet oxigenated any more? If he decides that the soil won't produce more plants? If he decides not to bring rain over us any more?

Does that mean that you love God out of fear that he will cut off our life-support at any moment?

/

 

[ElieG12]

Unjust people must FEAR God and His judgement... His loyal servants already respect Him.

Rom. 13:3 (...) rulers are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the bad. Do you want to be free of fear of the authority? Keep doing good, and you will have praise from it; 4 for it is God’s minister to you for your good. But if you are doing what is bad, be in fear, for it is not without purpose that it bears the sword. It is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath against the one practicing what is bad.

Psal. 36:1 Transgression speaks to the wicked one deep within his heart;
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much
To detect and hate his error.
3 The words of his mouth are hurtful and deceptive;
He shows no insight for doing what is good.
4 He plots hurtful schemes even on his bed.
He is set on a path that is not good;
He does not reject what is bad.

 

[Bob]

Thank you for your post.

Did God put you here to merely look after yourself, and acquire your heart’s desires by any means you can (as do typical social animals)? Or did he create you to love him by loving your neighbor?

And what does it mean to love our neighbors?
Three sets of characteristics capture most of it:
Caring and sharing (Matthew 25: 35,36);
being Gentle & Kind (no violence, no force—Commandments 6 - 10; Jesus is the model);
embracing life-long, monogamous marriage as the foundation for a love-thy-neighbor community.

Indigenous peoples throughout the world expressed the concept more simply: God commands us to live harmoniously with Him, the world, and especially with each other.

Will you be merely obedient to God, or be joyfully obedient out of your love for Him?

Peace.

 

[St. SteVen]

Did God put you here to merely look after yourself, and acquire your heart’s desires by any means you can (as do typical social animals)? Or did he create you to love him by loving your neighbor?

Welcome to the forum and thanks for joining this topic.

I'm interested in your comment asking: "Or did he create you to love him by loving your neighbor?"
That's a curious connection. Sort of a bottom-upward view.

The key scripture had us loving our neighbor as ourselves. And loving God...
"... with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind..."

In the opening post (OP) I was taken with the simplicity of the "love your neighbor" aspect,
compared with complexity (and totality) of the love your God aspect.

/

 

[Logikos]

Thinking about the Greatest Commandment question posed to Jesus and the two great commands of Christ in response.

All three synoptic gospels render the (mis)quote from Deuteronomy differently. Which raises its own set of questions.
Anyone that has worked through that, please weigh in to explain. Thanks. All five scriptures are quoted at the bottom of this post.

In Luke 10:27 we read:
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;
2) and, Love your neighbor as yourself.

- So, we are to love God more than we love ourselves?
- We are only to love our neighbor as ourselves.
- Do we love ourselves with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?
- Do we love our neighbors with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?

We are also taught to love the unlovable. (like our neighbor?)

- Is God lovable?
- Has the church created a caricature of God that is unlovable? (I would say, "Yes.")
- How can we love a God like that with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18 NIV
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people,
but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

• Matthew 22:37
  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
  
  
• Mark 12:30
  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
  
  
• Luke 10:27
  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
  and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

/

It wasn't a misquote of Deuteronomy! Jesus was quoting the Septuagint.

Also, this discussion is going straight into the weeds of confusion if you don't define the term "love".

 

[Lambano]

It wasn't a misquote of Deuteronomy! Jesus was quoting the Septuagint.

No, the Septuagint version has "kardias" (heart), "psuches" (soul), and "dunameus" (power), closely followng the Hebrew. (Other than substituting "Kurios" for The Name, of course.)

6:5 καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς σου

Besides, why would Jesus speak in Greek when addressing a Jewish audience in Israel?

 

[Lambano]

Also, this discussion is going straight into the weeds of confusion if you don't define the term "love".

One of the definitions of "Agape" love I ran across was "the happiness and well-being of the one loved is essential to the happiness and well-being of the one loving". Can we start with that one?

 

[Lambano]

Commanded to love God more than we love ourselves?​

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. (John 15:13)

I guess Jesus loved us more than He loved Himself. Now I suppose I should ask myself if I'm willing to lay down my life for Him? What might that look like?

 

[St. SteVen]

I guess Jesus loved us more than He loved Himself. Now I suppose I should ask myself if I'm willing to lay down my life for Him? What might that look like?

This came to mind.

Philippians 1:21 NIV
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Jesus,
Today I am living for you. Show me what we are doing today.
AMEN

/

 

[Lambano]

One comment on "loving your neighbor as yourself". I can't remember the exact quote or who said it (the first part sounds like C.S. Lewis), but it was something to the effect that "While some days I may not be too fond of my own company, I certainly try to make sure that I am warm, clothed, and well-fed".

(Actually, I should've used that one in your thread about "liking your neighbor", but of course I can never think of the perfect retort until it's too late.)

 

[Cyd]

Thinking about the Greatest Commandment question posed to Jesus and the two great commands of Christ in response.

All three synoptic gospels render the (mis)quote from Deuteronomy differently. Which raises its own set of questions.
Anyone that has worked through that, please weigh in to explain. Thanks. All five scriptures are quoted at the bottom of this post.

In Luke 10:27 we read:
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;
2) and, Love your neighbor as yourself.

- So, we are to love God more than we love ourselves?
- We are only to love our neighbor as ourselves.
- Do we love ourselves with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?
- Do we love our neighbors with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?

We are also taught to love the unlovable. (like our neighbor?)

- Is God lovable?
- Has the church created a caricature of God that is unlovable? (I would say, "Yes.")
- How can we love a God like that with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18 NIV
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people,
but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

• Matthew 22:37
  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
  
  
• Mark 12:30
  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
  
  
• Luke 10:27
  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
  and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

/

Question... If you know you are evil and basically all humans are evil we are told.. do you love yourself? If so how then do you love a neighbor as yourself??
Mt 7:11

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Gen 8:21

And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done.

We must need help in the Love department and need to ask for it...as Messiah even added a commandment re Love Jo 13:34.
If evil = devils then is the planet full of devils? If the planet is full of evil then you have to wonder if this is your final chance to be with almighty God.

 

[Cyd]

Does that mean that you love God out of fear that he will cut off our life-support at any moment?

/

Proverbs 1:7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

 

[Lambano]

Only the beginning of knowledge....

 

[St. SteVen]

Question... If you know you are evil and basically all humans are evil we are told.. do you love yourself? If so how then do you love a neighbor as yourself??

We have been transformed into the image of Christ and are therefore no longer evil.
We need to love ourselves and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
And love God even more than we love ourselves and our neighbor.

Fortunately, love for ourselves as manifested as love for neighbor flows naturally into love for God.
At least, I think that's how it's supposed to work.

It all begins with loving yourself. We can't love in the other areas without that first.

/

 

[Cyd]

Only the beginning of knowledge....

 

[Cyd]

That is why we need to ask help re in the Love department. there are a lot of verses "fear of the Lord" exact quote.