Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Readings:
Esther 5
Romans 13:7-14

Focus:
Romans 13:9: "The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,' and any other commandment there may be, are all summed up in the one rule, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

It's easy to say, as the Beatles sang, that "all we need is love." But when we really think about this commandment, "love your neighbor as yourself", it's rather harder than it sounds at first. It's not just about benevolent feelings and toleration.

When we love our neighbors as ourselves, then we help others with our time and our money. We act kind as well as feel kind. We stand up for those who need advocacy.

We also refrain from indulging in not only large crimes like theft and murder, but also little things like irritability, sarcasm, me-firstness, laziness, and all sorts of other petty behaviors that hurt our neighbors.

We apologize when we've done wrong.

There are many ways in which we change our lives.

We do this because we love our neighbors as ourselves.