LOVING GOD AND LOVING ONESELF

Last week, I shared the introduction to the upcoming book. This week, I would like to share two chapter introductions (loving God and loving oneself) of my book. Next week, I will feature two more. I wrote these in June when I was in Korea. Happy reading!

Introduction to Loving God

For decades, I have wrestled with God, who seemed to me to be incongruent at best and bipolar at worst. God portrayed in the Old Testament and the New Testament appeared to be radically different. God in the Old Testament seemed to be largely punitive, retributive, short-tempered, and decisive in handing judgments based on God’s just and righteous character. God in the New Testament, on the contrary, seemed to be much more restorative, loving, compassionate, and patient.

Through my struggles over time, I have realized that Jesus Christ holds the key in interpreting the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. God portrayed through the teachings, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the God of the Bible. Through Jesus Christ, we are invited to enter the union with the God of Jesus, which is to love God.

How we answer what God is like dictates our life’s trajectory and impacts our habitual decisions, both big and small.

To be sure, knowing and loving God is a lifelong journey. The two are intricately dependent on each other. There is a big difference between knowing God and knowing about God. Knowing and loving God is an intimate, subjective, and personal act. Jesus taught us to love God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul. We must love God with our whole being, not with our disjointed and compartmentalized selves. We also must love God with our own individual hearts, mind, strength, and souls. We cannot love God with someone else’s heart, mind, strength, and soul.  

Consider this chapter as an invitation to reimagine, rethink, and re-posture your understanding of what God is like and an invitation ultimately to love God. We are to do this as imperfect beings. God is okay with that and fully expects that. Thus, a pilgrim’s ultimate sanctification journey is to move from conditional and imperfect love to unconditional and perfect love.

Introduction to Loving Oneself

For most of my life, I have lived my life based on others’ expectations and thoughts of me. What others think of me and expect from me have been my guiding light, especially for me as a Korean American, with an emphasis on Korean. Earlier in life, I am my parents’ son. Later, I am my wife’s husband, my children’s father, my church’s member and missionary, my organization’s member and leader, and so forth and so on. What others think and expect of me have dictated my life.

While this is still a work in progress, it has taken a herculean effort of courage, honesty, and self-awareness to swim against the powerful current of external thought of me to discover and accept who I am. I am not what others think of me. I cannot live my life based on others’ thoughts and expectations of me. The need to swim against the current is just as true for the followers of Jesus as it is for the entire swath of society. Especially in societies where uniformity and distorted view of harmony reign and are valued, one is discouraged to stand out and discover oneself.

Why did Jesus say, “love your neighbor as yourself?” Why didn’t he simply say, “love your neighbor?” This question has lingered with me for years, especially since the Church emphasized “love your neighbor” while ignoring “as yourself.” What did Jesus mean? The main clue is found in Genesis 1 where it is recorded that all humanity is created in the image and likeness of the triune God. And God said it was very good. At the risk of being simplistic, Jesus’ command could also be viewed as—treat others in the same way you view yourself—as God’s creation. Furthermore, the command was to recognize and affirm God’s created image and likeness in myself as well as others!

When you scan the heroes and heroines of all traditions, after incredible feats of adventures, they all invariably “come home.” That homecoming can be interpreted as “coming Home” and “coming home to oneself.” A pilgrim’s journey starts with whose one is as well as who one is. There is no other better start!