Dying to self vs dying to others
This past week has been... interesting. Interesting in the ancient Chinese curse sense of the world. (Although, according to the great and mighty Wikipedia, that particular Chinese curse could well be western in origin and far from ancient.)
The text for today's post comes from the 22nd chapter of Matthew, begining in verse 37. "Jesus replied. 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. 'Love your neighbor as yourself'. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
All of the Law is based on those two commandments. The first one, while difficult in implementation, is very simple in concept. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God." The second one, however...
Who is your "neighbor"? I assume that includes everyone. All people. But it doesn't say love some more than others. In fact, Jesus points out that those who love their friends and hate their enemies are no better than the tax collectors. It is only a matter of degree, then, to say that it is wrong to love their friends and love their enemies less. Perhaps 'wrong' is not exact... God's will is that we love everyone equally. As we love ourselves, to be exact. But that brings up another point of contention; What if we don't particularly like ourselves? And Jesus said that anyone who followed him would have to "deny himself". If 'Love of Self' should equal 'Love of Others', and 'Love of Self' must die for the Cross, then should not 'Love of Others' do the same? But then, that just points to the supremacy of 'Love the Lord your God' and the subordination of 'Love your neighbor'.
My point is this. Is it required that a Christian sacrifice himself for another? We are called to subordinate ourselves to God, to the Cross, and to the pull of the Holy Spirit. We are not required to subordinate ourselves to each other. Let me clarify: If God calls me to sacrifice all that I have, then I am obligated to comply. However, if another person calls me to give him all that I have, I do not have to comply. We are called to love them as we love ourselves. Which can be interpreted many ways. I would say that we provide for our own needs, from what God has provided for us, and then provide for others whose needs have not been met. This means that there will come certain times when God provides only what we need, usually to focus our attention on our reliance upon him.
On the other hand, there is a blessing in given out of our need, in sacrificing ourselves in someway. Jesus gave an example of being a servant, and John tells us that laying down our lives for a friend is the greatest love one can have for another. There are also times when God calls some specifically to sacrifice something for others.
There are applications of this that I will hopefully get into at another time.
1 comment:
One thought. You say in your post that "if God asks us for all that we have, we must comply." (Well, another thought added in here. We don't have to comply. He has given us free choice. But I'm going to assume that youa re saying if someone is trying to be obedient to God...)
However, "if a person asks us for all that we have, I do not ahve to comply."
When God asks us for all that we have, we know that he will provide what we need and He has a reason to ask for our all. He has our best interest in mind and is teaching us.
When a person asks for all that we have, do we need to love them as ourselves? Yes. Does that mean that we give them all that we have? No.
Why not?
As humans, there are often wants or desires that we have that are not healthy for us. We often have to say no to ourselves, do we not? Everything from, "No, you don't need that second donut," to, "No, you can't go spend all of that money on the (insert desire here). You need to save money and plan for it," to, "No, you can not continue in that relationship. It isn't healthy." God calls us to love others, not be walked on by them. Part of loving someone is showing them the way to God and His provision. Yes, I firmly believe that we need to give to the poor and less fortunate. Whether it be money or time that is given, according to your ability. But we are also given the task of caring for our families. We do not endanger our families for other people unless God has specifically told you do to something. (Like sacrificing Issac.)
I hope I didn't ramble too much. Kind of had my own stream of thought going there.
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