But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you (for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled); otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.—Leviticus 18:26–28
Brainy Tip: We treat our neighbors according to what we believe, which impacts not only other people but also our own brains and bodies.
If we constantly think about our own desires and needs, we make our own image our god. We sacrifice the needs and desires of other people, of every living thing, to this god, “defiling” the image of love in which we were created, bringing destruction and pain into the world and into our brains and bodies.
If, however, we renew our minds and change our thinking, seeing the world as God’s beautiful creation and treating others as valued and dignified beings, we heal the world and ourselves. Research has indicated that by helping others, we speed up our own healing by more than 60 percent! We rediscover our true nature as human beings created in the image of a loving, gracious, wonderful God, and we step into our perfect, whole selves.