The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.’
– Mark 12:31
To love one’s neighbour as himself one must know how to love himself. Christians have sometimes backed away from self love because of the stress laid on self denial in Scripture (John 12:25, Luke 14:26, 2 Timothy 3:2, Matthew 16:24). These Biblical condemnations are not in opposition to loving one’s self but against over loving one’s self. Those who condemn self-love seem to confuse it with selfishness. Respect and care for oneself (self-love) is not identical with egotism, which is selfishness, seeking to satisfy only itself.
Jesus clearly implied that one should love himself and that this should serve as the basis for loving others. The text does not read “love your neighbour instead of yourself”, but, “as you love yourself, love also your neighbour”.
A Christian should love himself for three reasons. First, he is made in God’s image which is worthy of love. Christian love enhances the value of self by virtue of the Father’s love for every self. To accept oneself as a child of a heavenly Father who loves, cares, and values him is a significant experience. How can one despise or reject a self, whether my own or another, whom the Father values enough to love? Secondly, self love is the basis for loving others. Lastly, because God loves us, and if we do not love ourselves then we do not love what God loves. Human experience has confirmed that those who do not have a proper respect and concern for themselves will be lacking in these same things toward others.
All who are capable of loving others will be capable of loving themselves also. Loving another enhances the worth of the lover as well as the beloved. Self-love needs to outgrow self-centred fixation to become free to turn upward to God and outward to man. When our love grows up and out, it becomes mature in focusing toward others. As the seed becomes the fruit, so the self grows into the nourishing delight of Christian love.
Selected – “The Christian Ethic of Love” by Norman L. Geisler and “Christian Love” by Paul E. Johnson.
This Week @ Detonate:
Good day! Uncle Boon Heng will be speaking in service this Saturday at 4.45pm! Get ready for a time of exciting and fun filled session as we partake of God's Word. See You there!
Prayers and Fasting from the Body:
This day, 12 Oct 2009 at 00:00 am, as we deny ourselves and fast till the end, a 3:16 movement, we gonna get down to our knees to pray for the people that we will be inviting for the 3:16 event on 12 Dec 2009 at 06:30 pm. We gonna trust and believe God to open the hearts of those in our generation to recognise God in their lives! Let us encourage each other along the way. Amen!
What is Christian Love? (Part 2)
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
There are three types of love: (1) Egoistic love (Erotic love), which seeks to get but not to give. Erotic love, by this definition is self-centered, focusing on care for the self. Its only purpose is to satisfy itself.
(2) Mutualistic love (Philic love), which is involved in a give and get relationship. Philic love is found in friendship. It gives with the expectation that it will receive.
(3) Altruistic love (Agapic love), which gives with no demand to get anything in return. Agapic love desires to satisfy others. It is unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others. It is not what one can get but what he can give that is the characteristic of divine love, it is sacrificial. God loves even when there is no love in return. God’s love is in fact unconditional. God’s love is a giving love even if no one receives it. This is Christian Love.
Christian love is great in depth and range. In depth or vertical, it is divine as coming from God, who takes the initiative in loving man and inviting man to share with Him. In range or horizon, it is universal, excluding no one but reaching out to love all people regardless. This is the only way for us to ‘Worship God by Loving Others’.
Selected – “The Christian Ethic of Love” by Norman L. Geisler and “Christian Love” by Paul E. Johnson.
This Week @ Detonate:
Hello Church! Brother Andrew Yeo will be speaking in service this Saturday at 4.45pm! Let us pray for God's anointing to be upon him as he shares with us about God's word. Let's us continue to invite our friends to church as well. See You there!
Prayers and Fasting from the Body:
This day, 12 Oct 2009 at 00:00 am, as we deny ourselves and fast till the end, a 3:16 movement, we gonna get down to our knees to pray for the people that we will be inviting for the 3:16 event on 12 Dec 2009 at 06:30 pm. We gonna trust and believe God to open the hearts of those in our generation to recognise God in their lives! Let us encourage each other along the way. Amen!
What is Christian Love? (Part 1)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. – Mark 12:30
The command to love means nothing unless Christians understand what love means. One does not need to search further, for the meaning of love is found in God and certainly the Bible means more when it says, “God is love.” Love is God’s very nature. To understand God’s nature is to know what love is all about.
In John 3:16, God demonstrated His love through Jesus Christ who fulfilled all that the law required. The law spelled out the meaning of love but Christ lived it out. The law expressed the demands of love but it itself cannot fulfill those demands. The law tells us what love ought to do but it cannot do it.
God provides this love for all who are willing to receive it. God hates sin so much that He cannot even look on it (Habakkuk 1:13, Proverb 6:16-19), but He loves sinners so much that He gave the best He had for them, His only Son.
All who are willing to die to self and allow this love to flow through them will receive the power to love as Christ loved. When we experience the compelling love of God, we will naturally grow to love the people around us as Christ loved.
Selected – “The Christian Ethic of Love” by Norman L. Geisler.
This Week @ Detonate:
Yes! You are right! We are having a special speaker again this coming Saturday at 4.45pm sharp! Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Let's us look forward to this time as the speaker shares with us about God's message and her personal testimony. See You there!
Prayers and Fasting from the Body:
This day, 12 Oct 2009 at 00:00 am, as we deny ourselves and fast till the end, a 3:16 movement, we gonna get down to our knees to pray for the people that we will be inviting for the 3:16 event on 12 Dec 2009 at 06:30 pm. We gonna trust and believe God to open the hearts of those in our generation to recognise God in their lives! Let us encourage each other along the way. Amen!
What's for Dinner?
I can hardly imagine inviting special friends over for dinner and then throwing a few leftovers into the microwave to serve up to them. But if I were to do that, it would speak volumes about how I realy feel about them.
Giving God the leftovers of our lives speaks volumes about His true worth to us. When God asked Abraham to give Isaac back to Him as an act of worship, Genesis 22:1 calls it a test. A test to see if there was anything in his life that he treasured more than God.
There are times when God requires something really important to get His work done. God may call us to sacrifice portions of our time or money or comforts to advance His cause. The way we respond to what He requires says volumes about how we really feel about Him.
"Anyone can offer the leftovers. Only those who love God more than anything else will serve up the very best for Him." - Joe Stowell.
No sacrifice we make is too great for the One who sacrificed His all.
Selected from "Our Daily Bread".
This Week @ Detonate: Please take note that there will be no youth service on the 10 Oct 2009. Coming up On the 10th Oct 2009, Saturday, Detonate Ministry will be visiting Doulos, a Christian ministry that travels around the world on an active ocean-going passenger ship. We will be meeting together in church at 5pm before we proceed to VivoCity HarbourFront. Please register with Brother Amos Lee. All youths are encouraged to attend this event. For more information, please visit http://www.doulos.org/ .
