I am a member of a wonderful church school class that has open up Bible study to me in a way that has changed my life and my perspective immensely. I have studied the Bible for all of our life literally but we truly don’t understand the Bible until we routinely apply it to ourselves and how we think, speak, live and interact with others. In Galatians 5:14, we read “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The Law as given to Moses is full of responsibilities for us as individuals that keep us on a straight path toward God but in Galatians, we are told that if we can simply love EVERYONE as we love ourselves, we have fulfilled the entire Law. That’s amazing to me but as I concentrated on really what that verse is saying it is so very true. I am very good at seeing the positive in my own actions. I’m good at forgiving myself for doing things that I know I shouldn’t have done. The list of areas where I provide grace to myself repeatedly is a very long list. So, why can’t I do the same for others? It’s simple yet very complicated because that forces me to look at others from an immediately sympathetic position when my natural inclination is more toward cynicism than understanding. With God’s help, I choose to look at others from a better perspective than I have in the past. Join me, please.
