Jesus told us that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. The dictionary defines neighbor as “our fellow man,” which covers just about everybody. Not only does Jesus call us to love the ones we like, but He also calls us to love those that we don’t like-even our enemies. Unless we know how to love ourselves, we will not be capable of truly loving others. If we are hard on ourselves, we will in turn be hard on others. The behavior in others that we criticize most often is usually a behavior we possess or fear having. We feel threatened by others’ examples of our own weaknesses-or potential weaknesses.

Without self-love, the love we feel for others is not pure but counterfeit. We must learn to accept our own weaknesses and to forgive ourselves for our imperfections the way Jesus does-before we can accept our neighbor’s weaknesses and forgive them for not being perfect. Then, and only then, will we be able to experience love for ourselves and love for our fellow man.

“You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself” (Matthew 22:39b).