Loving God, loving myself and loving others.
Luke 10: 25-37
In this paper we are going to look at how people accept, or do not accept themselves, and the images we can all project. Before doing so, we look at the context to our reading, and make a comment on God’s command to love Him. As we go through the paper we will also see what love really is.
The Context.
Before our reading about the lawyer (Luke 10:1-18).
In your mind’s eye picture a hot, dry and barren desert. As you look out into the desert you see hundreds of hungry and thirsty people wandering around, not in a crowd but on their own and occasionally shouting out at anyone who crossed their path. Yet all these people have one thing in common; they believed they knew how to take control of their lives – and now they are struggling. As you watch these people you notice a shepherd approaching people individually. He shows great concern for them, and as he holds up his arms out, an oasis of lush vegetation and running water appears around the person. Think about this, because what you see is a picture of compassion.
During one of my placements I worked in a police station for a few days. After a hard day’s work I stopped to read a newspaper a few minutes before clocking off. As I was reading the paper I suddenly I realised that the room had gone quiet. A man had come into the room and was staring at me. I kept on reading the paper whilst thinking to myself, “I’m sure I’m supposed to recognise you from somewhere.” Unfortunately I failed to realise that it was the Chief Inspector in charge of the station, until after he’d started having a go at me. No one on the room bothered to say anything in my defence, and before I could open my mouth he had walked out.
A very brief overview of the Bible.
The Bible consists of sixty-six books that were written over a 1,600-year period. These books – Genesis to Revelation – speak of man’s beginnings, God’s gracious dealings with man, and the final culmination of all things through the return of Jesus Christ. God’s word gives us a blueprint to live by, and answers such questions as, “who am I, why am I here, and what is my purpose in life”?
Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells us that God created a world of order and not disorder. We are amazingly, and wonderfully made, and did not come about by accident.
Someone once bought me a lottery ticket and I started thinking of all the ways I could help people. For example, it would be great to see the face of someone who was struggling to pay the mortgage when they opened a letter and found a cheque that paid off their mortgage. It would be great to see the face of someone who’d had years of trouble with an old banger of a car, as they opened a letter and found keys to a brand new car parked outside their home. It would be great to help out Christian organisations that were struggling, or to see the face of a friend when you gave them the holiday of a lifetime. Yet, in all this thinking about the help and freedom that people could find, there was this deep down feeling that all this would not really bring about true freedom of heart and mind. This is because the Bible says, only God can really do that. He wants us to find freedom in the life He offers us. And this, rather strangely to some, brings us to the word ‘religion.’
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