Christians
and Self-Love
As Christians, Jesus tells us to “love your neighbor as you
love yourself”. (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19) It is healthy to love yourself
to a degree, especially as a saved son or daughter of God. Most people daily
feed themselves, clothe themselves, keep their bodies clean, medically care for
themselves, etc. All of us show some self-love. When God talks about
“self-love” He means that we should realize how wonderfully He has created us
and loves us. God wants us to be good towards our ourselves. We cannot properly
feed others, clothe others, etc. if we do not already do those things for
ourselves.
We all seek for freedom and joy in our own lives. If we are
spiritually healthy, we wish the same for all others. Christians focus on
loving God first, before anything else. Communism and Socialism remove God and
focus on the “love of man” and who will be the ultimate “savior” politician. Today
people want the freedom to mutilate their bodies, males trying to be females
and females trying to be males. Many worldly psychologists call this “true
freedom of the self”. Well, to us as Christians, we see it as perverted, strange,
and weird.
So, todays idea of “true freedom” is a Godless freedom. A
moral relativity, where anybody gets to make up his or her own rules in
society. Selfishness is considered a strength in todays fallen world. Unfortunately,
today as Christians, we find ourselves being called “narcissists”. Why? Because
we put God first in everything and believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to
heaven. We do believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven but that
doesn’t make us narcissists. We find that some people have taken psychology
classes and even have degrees but because they have never practiced as a
legitimate “psychologist”, where one can gain actual experience with other
human beings and experiment with what they know, these people really have no
right to place labels on all those whom they disagree with.
Narcissism is basically excessive self-love; many have
called it “egotism”. To diagnose everybody that disagrees with you as a
“narcissist” has become the fad in today’s fallen world. This is a serious
claim to call somebody this. They say it is “uncurbable”, a “life long disease”,
etc. A true narcissist is somebody who is self-centered without God, a person
who is deep into the sinful nature of the fallen self. All things are curable
by our Almighty God. As Christians we pray for those who have this type of
personality.
Sadly, today’s world is mostly educated in what has
popularly become known as “self-help books”. Also, people read many books on
self-esteem and these contain the idea that humans can do anything without the
help of others, you have all the power that you need right inside that weak
fleshly body of yours. This is a dangerous foundation to begin any subject of
study with. On top of all of this false doctrine we have the New Age movement
with all its publications stressing the idea that you are a “little piece of
God” and all you have to do is realize that you are God. Once a person does
this, well…they can accomplish anything.
As Christians we live in reality. We know that no human being
is God, but Christ alone. We are the “created”, God is the Creator. Christians are not called to
love anybody or anything above God. God is first for us. We serve a moral God,
a righteous God, a loving God. Apostle Paul warns Christians under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers
of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing
to do with them.” (2nd Timothy 3:2-5) Well, that says it all.
We hope that you continue to study your Bible’s with us here
at “The Shepherds Way & Nugget of Truth”. Remember, if you are a Christian,
we are your brothers and sisters in Christ.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
AACG (December 19th 2025)
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