Command 40: Love Your Neighbor
Study Question
Q: Jesus taught that if a man wants to be His disciple he must “hate his own life.” How is a person to love his neighbor as himself if he is to “hate his own life”? (See Luke 14:26.)
A: In order to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must first have a proper love of ourselves. Such a love must be based on the realization that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. (See Psalm 139:14.)
God has designed all of our unchangeable characteristics, such as family, birth order, gender, time in history, ethnic origin, mental capacity, and physical features, to accomplish His specific purposes in and through our lives. David stated in Psalm 139:16, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
If we reject God’s design of ourselves, we will not only resent God as our Designer, but we will tend to project the same negative attitude toward others, who are also created by God.
Jesus explained that the love we have for ourselves is demonstrated in how we take care of our own needs. We are to have this same care and attention for the needs of our neighbors.
“If any man come to me, and hate not … his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). The word translated hate means “to detest … by extension to love less.” In order to be Christ’s disciples, we are to not love anything, even our own lives, more than we love Him. Following His example, we should not selfishly look only at our own needs, but we should be alert to the needs of others and be prepared to meet them (see Philippians 2:4).
There could be no greater example of this than what was done by Jesus Christ, when He laid down His life for all people. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
This study question and answer is adapted from the Commands of Christ, Series 6, book. For further study, this book may be purchased from our Online Store.