January 20, 2024 — “Egg-Shell Christians”

“When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40

If we are looking for slights by other people we shall see plenty of them—even where none were intended. If we are expecting to be wounded by someone’s words, we shall receive them even when no one intends to wound us. Self-love, or better said “self-sensitivity” has a great imagination. It can see a great many evils, it can hear a great many slights, and it can be offended by many a comment where none existed and none was intended.

Paul famously wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood as a child….When I became a man, I put away childish things.” It is high time that we, as Christians, start doing the same thing. Suppose Christ had been as sensitive as so many people are today, would he have saved the world? If Paul had been easily offended would he have endured the persecution and dangers and tribulations and misrepresentations that he bore to carry the gospel to the world?

Look, we should first learn to love ourselves if we are to love others. However, loving ourselves is not supposed to lead us to being so sensitive. We should look for opportunities to serve others, not to spend our lives looking for slights. We are called to love G-d and others with the intensity that we love ourselves – but not allow self-love to mire us in negative emotions.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, loving you with all my heart, mind and strength and loving the others in my life can be so difficult. Teach me how to love others so my love can change the lives of the others around me. Amen

Pastor Dave