Love of self makes us prefer our own kind , and leads us to see others superficially . It is at the root of prejudice and discrimination .
new church life : july / august 2017
Love of self makes us prefer our own kind , and leads us to see others superficially . It is at the root of prejudice and discrimination .
When Jesus answered the question about who is our neighbor , He spoke in part to the issue of prejudice and discrimination . He told the story of the Good Samaritan . A man who had been beaten and robbed was lying by the roadside when a priest came by , but didn ’ t help . Then came a Levite , a temple worker , who also passed without helping . Finally , a Samaritan came and helped the man .
The Samaritans did not live far from Jerusalem , just a couple days walk , but the Jews considered them to be foreigners and despised them . They certainly didn ’ t think of the Samaritans as being the sort of people who would be welcomed in God ’ s Kingdom , and they would rather not have any dealings with them .
We all have a natural tendency to distrust people we don ’ t know and understand , and naturally it is easier for us to understand people who share our language , our culture , our genes and our values . We are all born with a natural inclination to love ourselves , and loving ourselves leads us to love people who are most like us and most connected with us . ( See New Jerusalem 67 )
Love of self leads us to think of our own way of doing things as being better than other people ’ s ways of doing things , so naturally we think of ourselves as being better people , and maybe seeing our own group as being more loved by God , or even being His chosen people .
Another characteristic of the love of self is that it leads us to see other people superficially . When we deeply care about other people we take the time to really get to know them and understand their challenges , values and loves . When we don ’ t care , we don ’ t really want to know other people deeply , so we just evaluate them by how they appear outwardly , and we only care for them if we can gain something from them , and they don ’ t get in our way or make us uncomfortable .
The very best qualities that people have are not the ones that appear on the surface . The values and intentions that we form from our conscience are from the Lord with us . When we don ’ t really care about others , we don ’ t spend enough time with them to discover what kind of conscience they have from the Lord .
Love of self makes us prefer our own kind , and leads us to see others superficially . It is at the root of prejudice and discrimination . It leads us to judge others by the clothes they wear , the color of their skin , the food they eat , the depths of their pockets , and the language they use . It leads us to treat
302