DOES THE BIBLE COMMAND US TO LOVE OURSELVES?

I never met a person yet that did not love themselves. Let me explain.  Here is a person that says "I am wrong, I hate myself"  So they become depressed.  This does not make sense. If they are no good and hate themselves they should be happy,  instead of being depressed. Their self pity and hatred for themselves shows that they love themselves.

Why is it that once you are confronted with your faults you defend yourself?  That is because you love yourself.  Self love is part of our human nature. It is very protective of itself.  It is not necessarily wrong in all cases, but can be taken to a harmful extreme.

No Self-Love Commandment in the Bible

Let us examine the two places from where humanists and psychologists  launch their texts.

Matt. 22:37--39  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

First, notice that there are TWO commandments here and not THREE. Immediately then this rules out a command to love oneself.

Second, the phrase is love your neighbour "as thyself." The word "as" make this a simile or illustration of how to love your neighbour, not yourself. There is absolutely nothing in this text that teaches us to love ourselves.

The Lord knows human nature better than we do. That we love ourselves is assumed in the phrase "as thyself," not commanded.  The only third command that could be applied from these verses would be to transfer some of the self love to God and your fellow man. This would be proper because  to be "lovers of themselves" is wrong,  2 Tim. 3:1... This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God

Dear reader, these very times are here, brought in by secular humanistic psychology and being propagated by Christian preachers and teachers  everywhere.

Self love here is a sign of the last days and is characterized by  "lovers of pleasures more than  lovers of God"  You cannot love God and be full of self love at the same time.  Why do teachers and preachers of the Word of God seek to use the secularism and the flood of self-love-worth-esteem books and teaching on the market today?  Man is a self-centered creature that need no incitement.

The second  text they use is:  Ephesians 5: 25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

This is a command, but it is not love for self, but your wife.

V. 28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.  Here again, it is assumed rightly so, that people love themselves.  The Lord is saying here that we should transfer that love to our wives, so it is not commanding the man to love himself, but his wife.  The simile is use in V.33, "as himself" This again assumes that it is true of all mankind.
33  Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

1 Cor.. 13: 4,5 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Please notice that love never seek her own.  It is never to be self-centered. It is to go out to God and others.

The Gospel is said to be, "......... the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."  This gospel only works in a person when the come as helpless sinners and believe it.  Why are there so many profession of faith in Christ that does not work? Why so little reality in professing Christians?   Is it not because of a perverted view of the worth of man?  All this self worth has brought the sinner up to a place where God is almost duty bound to accept them for their self worth.

Never was there as many books and voices heralding out a perverted good news of self-.....

Where did it all come from?

I quote;

"Another founder of modern psychotherapy was a contemporary of Freud. His name was
                   Carl Jung ( 1875-1961). Freud was a Jew. Jung was a Protestant. Jung viewed all
                   religions as collective mythologies. He believed that religion was real only in its effect on
                   the human personality. For Freud religion was the source of mental problems, for Jung
                   religion was a solution to mental emotional problems even though it was a myth. So to
                   Jung religion was an indispensable spiritual support, to Freud religion was an illusory
                   crutch. In the end Jung repudiated Christianity and became involved in idolatry and the
                   occult "

This is a quote from another;

"Under the influence of humanistic psychologists like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, many of us Christians began to see our need for self love and self esteem."  [Bruce Narramore  You are someone special Page 22]

It is little wonder that America is reeling in drunkenness, drugs, crime, murders, sexual misconduct, divorce and such. When self is on the throne then self aggrandizement demands self gratification.

Wake up Christian and fight this scenario that has invaded most of the established churches replacing the doctrine of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20:21 2  Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

"It is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God's holy, redeeming love, in the experience of that full indwelling of divine love, which comes through Christ and the Holy Spirit, who cannot but be humble. Not to be occupied with thy sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self."  Andrew Murray
 

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith


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Updated Jan 25th 2003, by Harold Smith