What does it mean to “love your neighbor as yourself“?
Proposed Answers:
1. It means to love one’s neighbor “as much as oneself” (noted and rejected by Aquinas, 729; cf. Jones, 50; seems to be held by Poole, 107; Osborne, ZECNT, 823) or “in the same way that you love yourself” (noted and rejected by Wolterstorff 188).
2. It means to love your neighbor “on a par with love of yourself” (Wolterstorff, 188).
• “Weak neighbor-love combined with intense self-love would not qualify as satisfying the command” (Wolterstorff, 188).
3. It means to “love your neighbor as person like yourself” (Jones, 50; cf. Wolterstorff, 188; Edwards, 372, n. 49).
a. This reading fits best with the Golden Rule: “So whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them” (Matt. 7:12; cf. Luke 6:31) (Jones 50).
b. “The command is to be interpreted as an instance of the standard “just as . . . so also” rhetorical structure. You love yourself, right? Okay. Then love your neighbor as well” (Wolterstorff, 188; Edwards, 372, n. 49).
4. It means to look after your neighbor’s “interests” in a “real and sincere” manner, just as one looks after his own interests” (Davies and Allison, 243-44; cf. Schnabel, 303).
• “People have a basic self-interest which they should extend to their neighbour” (Schnabel, 303).
5. It means to love others “for the same reason why your love yourself” (Aquinas, 729)
• The reason for loving both self and others is for God to be glorified (Aquinas, 729; citing 1 Cor. 10:31).
6. It means to love others “in the same manner that you love yourself” in that you want God’s good for them (Aquinas, 729).
Rejected Answers:
1. It means to love one’s neighbor “as much as oneself” (citing Aquinas, 729) or “in the same way that you love yourself” (citing Wolterstorff 188).
a. To love others “as much as oneself” is “contrary to the order of charity” (Aquinas, 729). That is, not all people are to be love to the same degree, but loves are to be ordered (Dt. 6:5; Gen. 2:24; Ex. 20:12; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 4:25; 1 Tim. 5:8; see also Augustine, 1.27-28; Lombard, 3.29; Udemans, Kindle loc. 451; à Brakel, 4:54; Wolterstorff, 188).
b. “Taken in a quantitative sense, ‘as yourself’ would strictly mean “no less and no more than yourself.” But the Bible does not require across-the-board equalization of benefits (implied in ‘no less’), and it commends self-sacrifice even to the point of preferring the lives of others to one’s own (excluded by ‘no more’)” (Jones, 50).
2. It means to love your neighbor “on a par with love of yourself”(Wolterstorff, 188).
a. Wolterstorff is correct to note that there can be a culpable lack of intensity of love toward neighbor.
b. Nonetheless, this formulation falls under the same critique as view 1.
5. It means to love others “for the same reason why your love yourself” (Aquinas, 729).
a. Theologically Aquinas is correct that Christians should both self and others with God’s glory in view.
b. It is doubtful that this theological truth is being conveyed by the as.
Acceptable Views
3. It means to “love your neighbor as person like yourself” (Jones, 50).
a. The parallel with the Golden Rule is compelling.
b. The grammatical/rhetorical observation is compelling.
c. This view rightly avoids reading the as quantitatively.
4. It means to look after your neighbor’s “interests” in a “real and sincere” manner, just as one looks after his own interests” (Davies and Allison, 243-44).
a. This view is similar to view 3.
b. The weakness of this view is that it drains the affective force of the word love in its description of looking after their interests.
c. Nonetheless, sincerely looking after others’ interests is part of what it means to love them.
6. It means to love others “in the same manner that you love yourself” in that you want God’s good for them (Aquinas, 729).
a. Theologically Aquinas is correct that the manner of love is desiring God’s good for self and others.
b. The as is not directly communicating this truth, but it would be included in the as read with the broadest theological background.
Conclusion: View 3 is the best, but views 4 and 6 are entailments of view 3.
Bibliography: Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew; Augustine, De doctrina christinana; à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service; Edwards, Mark, PNTC; Jones, Biblical Christian Ethics; Lombard, Sentences; Schnabel, TNTC; Osborne, ZECNT; Poole, Annotations; Udemans, The Practices of True Faith, Hope, and Love; Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs.