YOU GOT TO LOVE YOURSELF

 

September 30, 2024

GALATIANS 5:14

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Above we read that the apostle Paul said that, the entire law is summed up in a single command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

It's possible that the love we give to ourselves, its quality and generosity, greatly influences how we love our neighbors and others. I had a colleague who argued, that if you can't love yourself well, you cannot love others well. He wholeheartedly believed, that inability to love ourselves had a huge impact on how we could respond to loving God “With our heart, soul and strength.”

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' there is no commandment greater than these." 

Mark 12:30-31

 

The principle of loving your neighbor as yourself is emphasized eight times in the Bible, highlighting its profound significance to God. It's not merely a suggestion; it's a commandment. Jesus intertwined this command with the greatest commandment of all: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I believe most of us understand it's right to love our neighbor, and that Jesus challenges us to do so in the gospel teaching. Yet, for many we miss that it's also God's intention and desire, for us to love ourselves well. We need to understand this correctly. 

We should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3). But we must remember God placed a high value on us, we bear the image of the creator, and God stepped toward us in his son Jesus to healing and restore us and to give us a life that is blessed and full. So, when we view ourselves as failures. When we hate on ourselves, or when we put ourselves down or speak critically of ourselves and our worth, I believe this must grieve our creator. Believe me I have grieved my creator often with an unhealthy and defeating thought life.

Ephesians 2:10 describes us as God's masterpiece, created with care and purpose. Criticizing ourselves, therefore, is to disrespect God's creation. Recognizing our worth and value stems from our identity in Jesus, this enables us to love others genuinely. They too are loved by God, not for their actions, but purly by grace for who they are. 1 Corinthians 13 defines love's behavior: it's patient, kind, and embracing of others.

How should we love our self? We should be kind and respectful, just as we should be with others. Forgiving and forgetting the past is better than dwelling on our failures and mistakes. After all, everyone errs. Why should we let these errors hinder our progress towards the fulfilling life that God intends for us? The Bible emphasizes the significance of forgiveness, including the forgiveness we owe to ourselves, which we frequently neglect. Practicing self-care is not only beneficial but also a biblical principle that honors God.

We all know that loving our neighbor as yourself isn’t always easy because loving ourselves isn’t always easy. The Bible tells us “this is love. Not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice…” (1 John 4:10). We are the object of this love. God loves us/YOU. We are not just loved in a general kind of way, but deeply loved and unconditionally loved. We grasp this truth when we understand that God loved us first. He’s the source of our love. God the Father is the source of all love. Before we can give this love, we need to experience it for ourselves. “You can’t give what you don’t have.”

Learning to love yourself may not be an easy journey, but it's an essential one. Sometimes we need help getting to a point of self love, and maybe the reasons are deep rooted in the past and need to be worked through. Reaching out to a counselor might be a good idea. We did not learn these thoughts and patterns overnight. They have deeply rooted themselves in our lives over a long time.

Working through the issues that have caused you to not love yourself will not be easy work, but it will be worth it. Imagine living a life with the scope of what God wants for you and not in the shadows of self hatred. Learning to love yourself matters because you matter. We all matter to God.

LET US PRAY

Dear God, thank You for Your unwavering love, even when self-love eludes us. Guide us to accept Your love so deeply that it overflows from our souls, enabling us to share it freely. In Jesus' Name, Amen.