Jesus' Core Message

In the Gospels, Jesus tells us to, "Love one another" or "Love your neighbor as yourself". The emphasis is on the the word, 'Love'.  There are no caveats. He does not say, "Love one another, but if your cousin is gay, don't love them." "Love your neighbor, but if your neighbor is another religion than you, don't love them." No, Jesus only says that we are to love. It is the most powerful message in the world.. This message from Jesus is a very simple one. Those who consider themselves followers of Jesus, have no business overlaying their own biases on his words. Then there's the part about loving yourself. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and in the letters of Paul to the Romans and Galatians, and in the the Book of James this same teaching is quoted with very little change in words. I believe that before you can love anyone else, you must love yourself and Jesus knew that. All of the talk these days and in times previous, we have not even liked ourselves, or we wouldn't be saying the things we do about other people.  Self hate turns into hatred for others. How sad that is. We cannot say we love Jesus and his teachings, but hate certain kinds of people. Even if we don't use the word, "hate" but a euphemism, it still is the same emotion. I realize that learning to love yourself is not an easy task, yet it is what is needed to even begin to love others. I'm not even talking about a boy/girlfriend, a spouse, a lover. I'm just talking about loving those around you: family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc. They all have their quirks, indeed. Peel off the layers and find the part of them that is kind, loving, funny or just decent. That is what Jesus is talking about. You don't have to love every thing they do or say or even like them. But what is it within their humanity that touches you? That is what love is - the kind of feeling that reaches out and finds the good in every human being no matter who they are. Now, I'm not saying that there are some folks in this world who try your patience and make you want to abandon that feeling, i.e. Rush Limbaugh this past week. But we can at least pray for those misguided individuals and groups and that will at least make us all better people!