The One Who Guards His Soul =

The One Who Loves His Neighbor

"The merciful person benefits his own soul." (Proverbs 11:17)

The one who guards his soul is the one who shows compassion or love to others. This statement continues to make me think. The idea that "to guard my own soul, I must have compassion and love for others" seems to be one of Christianity's remarkable truths. The truth that living an altruistic life, a life of loving one's neighbor, actually benefits my soul. This is why I understand a little better when Paul commands husbands to love their wives, saying that the one who loves his wife is loving himself. This makes me think that, in the same way, when Jesus loves the church, He is loving His own soul, or loving Himself. This thought leads me to remember the essence of love, as described in the first epistle of John, where it says that "God is love."

Therefore, in contrast, a selfish life, a life that loves only oneself, can be considered as hating one's own soul, or doing harm to one's own soul. In the end, I believe that we, as Christians, are those whose souls have been renewed to live a life of loving others. No longer living selfishly, but having the responsibility to protect our own soul within an altruistic life. Today, I want to continue guarding my soul by loving other souls, with the grace that has been given to me.