Justice Corner: Love Your Neighbors With Your Whole Self


More and more as I scroll through news articles, listen to the news and watch the responses on social media, I feel helpless and unsure how to help mend this broken system. As I listen to classmates and friends I hear more about who said what to whom and how this system is bringing the worse out of people. I hear about the terrible atrocities that are happening to what seems like everybody. Children are dying in preventable and senseless killings and gun violence took center stage last year. People are losing their jobs because of an unstable political administration and Lady Justice has her eyes wide open as this country continues to watch unfair housing, policing, education and wages. Racism is an unending issue for people of color. I seem to be in a continuous state of uproar because there is nothing good or positive to be seen on our TV and timelines.

As a student of justice and as a Christian, the only thing I knew to do was to turn to my bible. In Mark 12:28-34, we find Jesus explaining to a scribe what the two greatest commandments are. Mark records Jesus saying “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

When I think about the second great commandment, I don’t believe everyone knows how to love themselves. As a result they may not know how to love others. However, if we can love others with the same love and reverence we show God, maybe we can start to make a difference, a difference that begins with our neighbors, community members, city officials, and hopefully our country at large.
Jesus refers to loving God and neighbor with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's clear, then, that one is to love God with one’s whole being, then love self with your whole being, and move to loving those around you with your whole being.

What does this radical love look like in practice, you might ask. It begins with committing oneself fully and wholly to God. Then, love one’s self enough to work on self through counseling or behavior modification and embrace the new and improved self by being honest and open with self and others. Set boundaries. Be true to God, true to self, and true to others. What’s more, when one can get to this place, treating others with the same radical love is a little easier. You find yourself donating your excess to people in need, speaking life to and over people, giving to others what they need instead of what you want them to have. This radical love changes your whole outlook and your expectation of others.

Moving in the direction the Bible speaks of is not easy. However, if each person committed to loving God and self with their whole being, treating others with love will not just transform them, it will transform the community. Maybe then we will start to see the change in our timelines and newscasts.
Teaira Parker is a seminarian at Wesley and president of Plumbline, Wesley's Social Justice student organization.


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