“The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self – to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.”
– Barbara Brown Taylor
The wait for Christmas is almost over. “Love”- what better word to have this last Sunday of Advent? The English Standard Version of the Bible uses the word “love” 684 times. To complicate our relationship with love, it is said that the English language has only one word for love. In reality, we actually have many different words, they all just seem to end up meaning “love”. There is familial love, God’s love, romantic love, there is even the brotherly love between brothers and sisters in the church.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, ESV
Most of us have heard this beautiful passage. If you haven’t, you should take in a wedding; they can be fun. Hearing 1 Corinthians at a wedding is setting the bar pretty high for the participants as well as those in attendance. Hearing it also gives us the perfect groundwork to help us achieve what Jesus called the most important commandment.
Jesus said,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”Matthew 22:37-29, KJV
As we look toward Christmas and the coming new year, let’s try to realize that what Paul said to the Corinthians so many years ago is as viable now as it was then. It seems as though loving our neighbor as ourselves starts with being patient and kind, then all we have to do is try not to be rude or arrogant. There is of course more, but at this time of year I also think a smile is a great start. I am going to try.
Merry Christmas,
Ken
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If you are looking for a simple daily practice this season, you can download Kate Bowler's Bless This Advent devotional here.