[Sorry, missed the anthem.]
Sermon – Love Begins at Home
Leviticus 19:9-18; Luke 10:25-28
10/4/2026
Today, we are in Christianity 101, and because we are also in the Book of Leviticus (which is also significant to Judaism and Islam), I would assume that today’s reading is also foundational for Jews and Muslims, as well. In other words, what we are getting into today is not isolated to followers of Jesus. In fact, loads of people from all over the earth hold some version of the “greatest commandment.” Even atheists appeal to the second part of Jesus’ instruction. That is the part of Jesus’ teaching that I am lifting up today. Caring for others as we care for ourselves is morally commendable, I would even say a necessity, for any civil society that wants to care that people are treated with some sense of dignity. Jesus paints the ideal: if we treat others as we treat ourselves, then it seems like life should be good between us. If everyone adopted this way of life, all people would be cared for in better ways.
This is such a basic idea, such a widespread wisdom, such a universal hope to treat people with fairness and decency, yet it is much harder to actually live out. No one in this room, in our livestream, or in a later listen really believes that we are there – genuinely successful at following Jesus’ instruction that he gives us from the Jewish law.
As important as this command might be, as useful or as essential to living out God’s community, or simply as good to do for all of our sakes, we are woefully inept at just this one basic command to love our neighbor as ourselves. Please understand that this one teaching for our way of life is perhaps the most important for people who take the Bible seriously at all: Romans 13:10 – Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.; Galatians 5:14 – For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”; James 2:8 – If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
The bar was set, yet we just can’t seem to reach it. The usual reasons for our ineptitude are obvious: we just don’t want to love others as much as we should. They might offend us, scare us, annoy us, or seem not worth the effort. And honestly, all people tend to be pretty selfish. We deep down want to love ourselves the most, and the thought of loving others as much as ourselves can feel like we have to love ourselves less. Also, I am the only “me” that I will ever have, and it seems I should be my focus. I might well love my family or other loved ones as I love myself, but there is no way that I can pour that concern into the lives of everyone else. Those are just some of our excuses. We have others.
But I have decided there might be another reason that I struggle to love others the best way, as much as I might love myself. This reason is less my fault, though. To be brutally honest, I actually might not love myself very well. Seriously, it is hard to love others the way that Jesus instructs, if I also have a hard time loving myself to begin with. Can we really love others well, if we struggle to really love ourselves the best way? I think rather it is actually impossible to love others in the way God desires, if we do not appreciate better love for ourselves.
I admit that this is a strange thought that had never occurred to me before. The way we use the passage and how it is nearly universally taught to those growing up in the church, it is assumed when we hear Jesus’ commands that we know how to love ourselves. It is a given. Everyone should know what that good and positive self-love should look like and that we can then give the same to others, but friends, that is wrong. People have struggled since the beginning of time with the very notion of love. All people do not love the same way or as well. This is should not be a shocker, but it is so easily swept under the rug. Some people are really good at sharing and showing love to others, love that is a model for the rest of us, but the same principle applies to how well we love ourselves. Some are better than others. It is not fair to assume that we can all just live out Jesus’ commandments the same or equally well. There may be those out there right now in earshot who struggle to love themselves at all. The challenge is really then all the more difficult to love someone else. What do we have to go on? Honestly, it breaks my heart to think of the hurt and self-loathing and shame and disregard that we heap on ourselves. How many did not have the kind of love from their parents or other family that they craved? How many have suffered such brokenness in a core relationship that they may no longer view themselves with value? How many have only ever seen love in unhealthy ways, thinking that love is about things and how we give and receive stuff? Too many people today consider themselves unlovable, and some struggle with self-love so much that they are incapable of reaching out to others. We need better connections, better relationships, better love, and that means we also need to love ourselves better so that we can reflect that love in our love of others.
That is where we just might have Jesus showing us some desperately needed value and a good example.
First, we are precious, even and especially the ones who are the outcast, the rejected, the broken, the worthless, and the unacceptable. I half-expect that the reason Jesus spent so much time and energy on the least regarded of people and those excluded from society was that they would become the best sharers of God’s grace. Even if they never understood it completely, even if they never had the whole story, they knew that Jesus of Nazareth, who everybody was saying was the Messiah, bothered to touch and heal and comfort and value them. No one else would touch them but Jesus did. No one else seemed to care, but Jesus did. He welcomed the last people that we would welcome. The time and energy and effort he demonstrated showed that he genuinely cared for all of God’s children and that we were precious to God. He never did “just enough” but went above and beyond because we are all children of God and are all precious to God.
Jesus also loved other people into being better. People who encountered Jesus and found his grace were changed. It did not matter what people had done, who they were, or what they thought of themselves. If they met Jesus, they changed. Their life was worth being blessed. Their life was worth a second chance. Their life was worth being redeemed. Our Messiah showed others that it was possible to love their neighbor. They were worth his time and trouble. They were worth his blessing. They were worth his company and fellowship. They were literally worth his life.
This is the key with Jesus, of course. He showed others that they were worth it to him. He purposefully valued others just by giving his effort and attention. Not only are we all, each and every one of us, worth something to God, we are worth God’s very best. Brother Jesus is God’s very best, and he lives for us all – rewriting our value no matter who we are. This is what we should be doing in the lives of those around us.
Love for our work here is simply showing someone else that they are worth it to us. They are worth the care, the time, the effort, the support, the relationship, the attention, and the space to grow. This is what we can give to others, and any of us can give this sense of worth, but if we have no known this ourselves, it is hard. If we don’t realize how special we truly are, we will never be able to reflect that to others.
We may not have known the kind of love we wished we had. We may have had a difficult or harsh love in our time of becoming who we are today. We may have had our sense of love broken. In fact, that might be why we are here today. Yet, our love begins right here at home. We love because Jesus first loved us. Yes, we are able to love because we are loved, we have been loved, and we will be loved just as we are. God’s love in Christ grows us into better people, no matter who we were starting out. This is the beauty of the gospel. This is the priceless truth of being a child of God. We are all at the center of God’s heart because Jesus puts us there. And we can invite others to join us. To God be the glory. Amen.