Good morning, and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

Would you open up your Bibles, please, to the 22nd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew for our study today? Matthew chapter 22, here in this portion of God's word, a question comes to our Lord, and beginning in verse 36, we read this:

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Well, what does that mean?

First thing we can say is that it's assumed here that we will love ourselves. Can self-love become sinful? Sure, is self-love self-esteem? No, because in Romans the 12th chapter, we hear that we are to not think of ourselves higher than we ought, but to think of ourselves with sober judgment. So what is then self-love that we are to have? Self-love is caring for yourself. We see that, for example, in Ephesians the 5th chapter, the Apostle Paul writes this: "In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies," and he goes on to say, "for no one ever hates his own body but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it." So self-love is caring for the self.

How then does that relate to caring for our neighbor, and that expression of love? If we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, then how does that relate to loving and caring for our neighbor? I think of the great parable, the parable of the Good Samaritan. The man is beaten. He's left for half dead. A priest comes; he walks on the other side of the road. A Levite comes; he walks on the other side of the road. But a Samaritan comes and tends to the man. The Samaritan cares for that man. Just as we are called to care for ourselves, we are called to care for others. That's self-love, then that then is expressed for the other: "Love your neighbor as yourself." In other words, as we care for ourselves, we care for our neighbors. Are we going to fall short on that? Absolutely. Thanks be to God for the gracious word of forgiveness won through Jesus Christ on the cross for us, that word of forgiveness. And God is at work to empower us to not only love ourselves, to care for ourselves, but to love others as ourselves, to care for others like we care for ourselves. So the question is, that just as you care for yourself, just as you have concern for your own welfare, who can you be concerned about? Whose welfare can you be concerned about today?

Thank you God for this time when your word, your word is truth. Thank you, Lord that you call us to love the neighbor as we love ourselves. And so Lord, as we care for our ourselves, Empower us to care for the other in Jesus' strong and holy name we pray, amen.

God bless you today, encourage someone.