Recently, I saw a great sign outside a church: “Love your neighbor. No exceptions.”
Wow, I thought—simple, but spot on. In these divided, polarized times, it’s good to take a step back and reflect on the meaning of love and to think about how well we’re each living it out in our lives.
I’m the daughter of a Christian minister and someone who has studied world religion formally, so the topic of love has permeated many a discussion in my life.
One of the beautiful things I found when in college and first being introduced to other faith traditions was that they talk about love, too (along with many other things that are surprisingly similar to the faith I was raised with).
There are, of course, different kinds of love, such as philia (brotherly love), eros (romantic or sexual love), and the highest of all: agape (godly love). And somehow, in this helpful breakdown of the different shades of love—and there are more—lies the key to it all, I have found.
Over the past year or so, I’ve worked hard on rooting out any negative feelings toward others that are in my heart around politics, social issues, and the list goes on. It has been a very freeing experience.
The motivation for this is that I’ve found that having any negative emotions toward other human beings is simply not in line with my goals for myself: to achieve a love for my fellow human beings that’s divine in nature; meaning, love that is without selfish emotion, is simply giving, and is good.
Of course, love is central to Jesus’s teachings and those of the Bible more broadly. “The greatest of these is love,” states the book of Corinthians. But what has been beautiful for me to realize, through the exposure to other faith traditions as previously mentioned, is that, for the huge part of the world that believes in the Buddha, divine love is central there, too. It’s simply known by a different name: compassion.
While it’s crucial during this time to stick to solid, time-honored values, doing so is also most effective when one speaks to others without judgment. That’s when the power of love, or compassion—the divine power that’s within each one of us—can work through you. I was watching a television show the other day that featured a pastor in a struggling inner-city neighborhood. He just radiated love. It was magnetic. He was living the gospel, so to speak.
Our world is suffering, no doubt. But the solution isn’t to sink into negativity; instead, it’s to turn to the light of love, the light of compassion, and to radiate that light and believe that it can help change this world.
Yes, we need to guard our own behavior along the way and protect our kids and our communities. And yes, we need to stand up for what’s right, what’s good, and what’s just. But the question is the heart, or intention, behind it. All of this will be done best when it’s done out of love.
Another Biblical line worth reflecting on is, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” How many of us, perhaps due to too much news consumption and too little self-reflection and spiritual work on ourselves, are casting stones, so to speak, in our hearts and minds?
We all would do well to remember, too, that there are more people around the world who share in our values and beliefs than we may think. They may call it love, or they may call it compassion. But no matter what, if all of us do our part—wherever we may be in the world—we’ll likely inspire others to do the same.