Being someone you love.

    The first commandment is for us to love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul and mind.  The second commandment is for us to love each other as we love ourselves.  The world has a huge part in determining how you love yourself.  Mostly it comes down to not denying yourself anything you see as good or great!  God says we need to not be of the world even though we are in the world.  Somewhere along the line we come to the question of what loving ourselves looks like from God's perspective.  Definitions are many and varied as you travel from culture to culture, experience individuals versus groups, and go from church to church.  Christians have a problem of not knowing what loving ourselves is to look like.  Yet, it's commanded we do so.  Here is where we come to the core is the issue.  In the greatest selfish and selfless ways possible we come to Christ for his love, acceptance and approval (something we don't deserve) and then we are to be Christ to the world by our unselfish giving of Christ's love.  In the midst of this we have the world pulling at us, sabotaging our walk and even ridiculing our actions towards those who can't even recognize the love of God.  Yet, we need to be someone you love.
     While yet a sinner Christ came to earth (an act of unselfish love) to live, die and rise from the dead for your and my salvation (an unselfish act of love) so that we can spend eternity with him.  Wait.  There is no selfishness there for Christ.  Yet, we are a selfish people who seek to take everything they can get to consume it upon themselves.  In James we learn that this is the behavior going on in the church!  What does it look like in the world?!  We, the church, do not live our lives to the degree that we remain unselfish with the love that Christ has bestowed upon us.  What would it like if those who say they have given their lives to Christ actually did just that?  Would we  be able to live like Jesus did denying himself for the salvation of others?  I'd like to say that's what I've been doing for the time I've known Jesus.  That would be a lie.  The core of every being on earth is self centered.  Abandonment of self is what Jesus asks for so that others may see his love in you and I.  Thus we are shackled with a responsibility to die to self so that Christ can live within us, through us and the world hear and believe the Good News!
     Jesus had many who came to him to serve him.  He knew their hearts and knew that they weren't in the space where they would give up their lives for his life in them.  He knows your and my heart and knows where we have surrendered and where we have not.  Because of this, the Holy Spirit was sent to all who believe to aid us in staying focused on Jesus and not ourselves.  We've  become a group of Christians who are looking to have our wants met while neglecting the needs of those who are all around us.  The top need is for Christ.  The second need is to be loved, accepted and approved by you and I just as Christ did for us.  It's no secret that we are commanded to love the sinner but hate the sin.  Making that choice is only possible if we look at what Christ did for us.  He looked past the sin (I'll get to that in a bit) and saw the creation God had made.  He was there when we were created.  He knows us intimately.  The Bible tells us that God throws our sins into the sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more.  He also says that he throws our sins from him (and us) as far as east is to west.  He didn't say north to south as they both have an end.  Not so with east to west.  What has this to do with our Christian life and loving yourself?  Should you take into practice Christ's life you would see the soul and not the sinner.  Loving ourselves is only as good as the amount of love we receive from Christ.  We, Christians, need to live as we have been loved and love as we have been loved.  You can either love yourself as the world loves you (selfishly) or you can love yourself as Christ does (unselfishly).  Both choices are yours.  The world sees with what love you love them.  Do they see Jesus or Satan. We are unable to serve two masters.  Remember that it's always your choice.