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Love of God and Love of Fellow Humans are Inseparable

It is easy to determine how much one’s personal or group’s beliefs are like the core teachings and values of Yeshua and his Movement. Yeshua’s core message also reflects a universal spiritual principle -- Helping oneself and helping others are inextricably intertwined. We can see this in the account below:

A Pharisee asked Yeshua, “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”

Yeshua answered, “`You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:24-30)

The point is that one cannot love God without loving his neighbor and himself. Keep in mind that the question came from a Pharisee and that doing religious rituals without corresponding acts of TZEDAQAH, righteousness, is a reoccurring issue.

Tal Ben-Shahar, a lecturer at Harvard and consultant to multinational corporations, reveals some important points about this powerful spiritual principle in his book, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment.

Helping others and helping ourselves are not mutually exclusive possibilities. In fact, as he philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson explains, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. Helping oneself and helping others are inextricably intertwined: the more we help others, the happier we become, and the happier we become, the more inclined we are to help others.”

Contributing to other people’s happiness provides us with meaning and pleasure, which is why helping others is one of the essential components of a happy life. If we do not make the pursuit of our own happiness a priority, we are hurting ourselves and, by extension, our inclination to help others. An unhappy person is less likely to be benevolent – and that leads to further unhappiness.

Yeshua’s teaching on entering into eternal life was based on people doing acts that helped other people – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, etc. (Matthew 25:31-46).

Determining how much one’s personal or group’s beliefs are like those of Yeshua and the Yeshua Movement is easy. Just answer the following questions:

(1) Do they inextricably intertwine love of God, love of one’s self and love of fellow humans as a lifestyle?

(2) Do the group’s core teachings focus on the interconnection of loving God, love one’s self and loving fellow humans?

(3) Is the group’s salvation teachings inextricably linked to doing acts of loving God, loving one’s self and loving fellow humans?

What impact would it make on lives around the world if followers of Yeshua and believers in Jesus incorporated this information in their lives? One thing we can safely say is that so many churches wouldn’t be half-empty or closing if their focus was on demonstrating what Yeshua taught – and the members would probably also be much happier!

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