Hōs: Love As Yourself

“The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)

It’s not uncommon for us to see or hear the phrase: “Love God, Love People.”

Both are good and fundamental to our design and purpose.

But perhaps we miss another core element in this simplification of Yeshua’s teaching from Torah - an element that makes loving God and others more possible.

When he says, “love your neighbor,” he continues by saying, “as yourself.”

The word for “as” here is hōs.

It can also be translated as: “like, according to, or in the same manner as.”

It’s a statement of equivalency.

Your love of your neighbor is and will be equal to the level of love you have for yourself.

We are called to love our neighbor with abundance, but if we do not love ourselves wholeheartedly - upholding a posture towards ourselves of kindness and compassionate regard - then there will remain a ceiling limiting the capacity with which we can love others.

We cannot give what we haven’t received.

Some may contest that this creates self-indulgence, but by definition, love is not indulgent, nor is indulgence loving.

If practices that come to mind as love towards self carry a tone of indulgence, let it open up a curiosity as to why that is.

It will either expose the mislabeling of something indulgent as loving, or it will pry back a layer of shame that would hinder the love we were made to receive.

Either way, there’s a reason why studies have shown that those who engage in spaces of self-love and formation - from examen and personal care, to therapy and self-reflection - display increased qualities of empathy - empathy being one of the central characteristics of love.