If I said it, I bet you would think I was just sweet-talking you and letting you off the hook. It doesn't really sound like what we are used to hearing, or what we think we hear, from our Church and our Bible. But it is St Paul, and it is Scripture: "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:4) There is a graciousness in that injunction that is abidingly Christian, and thoroughly realistic, an acknowledgment that is devout and decent but also wise and winsome, loving and generous. And oh, so understanding of us and our human nature, as well as of our Christian calling. We probably think we are supposed to put everyone else's interests ahead of ours, above ours, in place of ours. Selfishness, self-centeredness, self-concern, self-absorption are such terrible, terrible sins—we hear clergy yelling about them all the time, and we worry about them more than all of the time. Well, I guess we have not been reading St Paul as closely and as clearly as we should have been. He sees both, he allows for both, commends both, asks us to honor both—both our own interests and the interests of others. And he puts our own interests first. "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." And when we re-visit the Golden Rule, this time traveling on St Paul's glorious passport, we see again, or for the first time, or at least we finally, fully remember that Jesus asked us to treat others as we would have them treat us, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Thereby making us, and our own regard for ourselves, our own wants and hopes the template for how are to behave to those around us, whom we are to love. Jesus quotes the grandest commandment, the single "great" commandment, from the Old Testament as: "Love God with all our heart and soul and mind and love your neighbor—as yourself." Picture, imagine, recall, hold precious that love you have for yourself, honor it, acknowledge it, and then apply it to others. You are not to love others as they would ask, as they would want, as they would require, not even as they would need to be loved, you are to love them beyond all of that, you are to love them better than all of that, you are to love them as you love yourself. If you do not love yourself, not really, or not enough, or not at all, how can you love your neighbor, what kind of cheapened degraded love will you offer them if it is only the discounted, miserable sort of love you feel for yourself? The Great Commandment, given by God and then later insisted on by Christ, assumes and accepts, that you do, and should, and must love yourself, and then and only then do you go on to realize that as Christians you must love others just as much as that —as much as that. St Paul reminds us that we do have our own interests and we are to look to them, to act on them, to follow where they lead in a responsible and caring and just way. But we are not too look only to our own interests, to be fully Christian we must look to others interests as well. Not only our own as he puts it, not only our own. Jesus and Paul release us from our sad habits of beating ourselves up, apologizing for ourselves, feeling guilty because we are not as selfless, as sublimely selfless, as we assume God and Jesus and the Bible want us to be. Paul's small, magnificent comment this morning puts us back in our right minds and in line with the love and acceptance and grace of God in Christ. Love yourself, and then do your best, your very best, to love others as much as that. Pay attention to the interests, the needs, the concerns of others as much as you pay attention to your own interests and requirements. This is more than a grim, grudging allowance for our sinful or simply silly self-interest. This is more than some sad, defeated admission that we will never get it really right, we will never come anywhere near our Lord's love or St Paul's sacrifices. It is rather, the full and ringing affirmation of what it is to be human, what it is to be us, really us, not some gussied-up version of us, us as we really are. And Paul and Jesus and God believe – reckon is the Biblical word – that we, as we really are, are good and righteous, worth saving, impossible not to love. And so proceeding out of the way we are, the real genuine way we are, we can learn how to behave, how to treat others, how to walk as a Christian through this life of ours, this life with the interests we have, our self-interest yes, walk through this life filled with so much love, and mindful of the love we do and evidently should feel for ourselves, all so that we will know what to do, how to love, when we are commanded that we are to love others as we do ourselves. Paul will have nothing of us beating ourselves up and walking about with heads hung low because of "who were are", people who are, undoubtedly, looking to our own interests and concerns, our own worries and wonders, our own love. Paul sees that, and advises us that out of that love and interest we open up, and out, toward all others. But in order for that love we offer to others to be genuine, for the looking out for the interests of others to be real and effective, we must accept and honor our own interests, and frankly set about caring for ourselves, yes, even loving ourselves, as God loves us. Thank you, St. Paul – just what we needed, I think – today and most days: "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:4). You are to love those others, your neighbors, as yourself.