Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is none other commandment greater than these. I. ENDEAVOUR TO EXPLAIN TO YOU THE NATURE OF TRUE LAUDABLE SELF-LOVE AND SHOW YOU WHAT IS NOT MEANT BY IT. The mistakes to which we are generally liable as to this matter; and then what we are to understand by self-love, in what respects it is our duty. 1. That it is not self-conceit, an extravagant opinion of our own qualifications, and an unreasonable esteem and value for ourselves. 2. By self-love I do not mean self-indulgence, allowing ourselves in the gratification of sensual appetites without restraint or control, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and giving liberty to our own inclinations and passions however irregular and unbounded. 3. Neither does this duty consist in taking care only for the body, in employing all our thought and care, spending all our pains, and all our time in making provision for our subsistence in the world. 4. By loving ourselves, I do not mean what we may call selfishness, a confining our regard and concern wholly to ourselves, minding our own pleasures, or our own interest, not caring what becomes of others, what difficulties they go through, what miseries they suffer. For a further explication of this duty of love to ourselves, take the following particulars. (1) It must be regulated by love to God, and our relations and obligations to Him. (2) The measure of our love to ourselves must likewise be adjusted by the love and duty we owe to others; just as the love of others to themselves should be such as is consistent with their love and duty to us. II. OUR LOVE MUST EXTEND TO OUR WHOLE SELVES, BODY AND SOUL. III. TRUE LOVE TO OURSELVES MUST HAVE RESPECT TO ETERNITY AS WELL AS TIME. The arguments for rational religious self-love are such as the following. 1. The excellent nature of the soul requires a regard for ourselves, and a concern for our own welfare, and particularly for the true happiness of the soul. 2. To love ourselves, and to show a concern for our own welfare is a natural duty. 3. Your eternal salvation depends upon your serious concern for yourselves. 4. Consider the love of God to souls, manifested in his declarations of goodness and mercy. 5. How great is the loss of the soul! It is shameful folly and ignorance to think that any pleasure you can find in the way of sin will in any measure compensate it: What is a man profited. (Thomas Whitty.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. |
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