Verse 39
39. Second is like unto it Like in being founded in love; like in being in fact included in the first. For, if we love God completely, we shall perform all our duties to his creatures. As thyself So that we may love ourselves. The Scriptures teach self-denial, but they do not teach self-annihilation. They forbid selfishness, but they do not forbid self-love. The love of our neighbor may not be of the same kind with the love of ourself. It may have more of a moral and less of an instinctive nature. Thus the love we have for our neighbour is different from the love we have for our nearest connections. The parental and conjugal relations require of us peculiar duties and peculiar feelings.
If I would love my neighbour as myself, I must not require him to do for me or my family the duties I do to myself or my family; since I do not desire to do such duties for him or his family. If I love my neighbour as myself, I shall be willing to do all my duties in my own proper place, and allow him to do the duties and reap the enjoyments of his proper place.
This law is therefore the same as the golden rule, the former being stated as the law of the inner man, the latter his rule of external action.
The observance of this law would put an end to all injustice, violence, oppression, and war.
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