Are you my neighbor?

 ¹⁵ " 'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
 ¹⁶ " 'Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
      " 'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD.
 ¹⁷ " 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
 ¹⁸ " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:15-18 (NIV)

I've been reading Christ In Our Home, a daily devotional that Pastor David Penman, the chaplain for Kairos this year, gave to the Kairos planning group.  At first I didn't want to steal from it, but I've decided to share my thoughts based on where the devotional leads me.

Today the discussion was about how sometimes when we love others as ourselves, we are doing a pretty bad job because we don't love ourselves all that well.  The good news is that God loves me even when I don't love myself.

This got me thinking . . . all those times when Jesus is talking about our neighbor, he's not just talking about our friends - or even our enemies - he's also talking about ourselves.  The above verses jumped out at me as an instruction manual on how to deal with depression.  Depression is often caused by being angry with yourself.  Verse fifteen says, don't be too hard on yourself.  This doesn't mean you shouldn't be upset when you do something wrong, but don't berate yourself endlessly for the mistakes you've made.

Verse sixteen is pretty straightforward.  Don't kill yourself.  Seems like kind of a "no duh" thing to say, but placed with the slander part it also seems to talk to the idea that people who are mad at themselves sometimes go out of their way to ask for trouble.  Don't do things that are dangerous just because they are dangerous.

In verse seventeen we get straight to the heart of the matter: "'Do not hate your brother in your heart."  You cannot hold onto the anger.  There's a popular saying, "Hate the sin, not the sinner."  This distinction is important when you're looking inward at your own sin.  We are hardest on ourselves.  But until we can separate ourselves from the sin and say, "That's not who I have to be."  The sin continues to hold power over us.  "Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt."  Own up to what you have done.  Really examine it, and make a decision to change your behavior - and then rely on the Lord to help you.

This brings us to verse eighteen.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, this verse from Leviticus is what he quotes as number two, after "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind."  Number two is love your neighbor as yourself.  Where to begin?  You start with yourself.  You love yourself so that you can love others.  God will always give us more love, so don't forget to hold onto some for yourself when you're giving it away.  Trust in the Lord.

http://kairosverse.blogspot.com