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Don Stewart :: Should We Love Ourselves?

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Don Stewart
There is a big question as to whether the believer ought to love himself or herself. Actually, this is not an issue. Everyone of us loves ourselves. The Bible says:

After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church - (Ephesians 5:29).

Signs Of The End
One of the signs of the end is that people will be lovers of self rather than lovers of God.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves (2 Timothy 3:1,2).

When Paul lists a number of sins that will characterize the world at the time of the end, he lists self-love first. In fact, all the other sins in the list flow from this one sin. If people make themselves, instead of God, the center of their life, then all sorts of problems will proceed from that wrong perspective. The Book of Romans says unbelieving humanity:

exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal humanity and birds and animals and reptiles (Romans 1:23).

Instead of worshipping God, they worship and served themselves. This type of self-love is strongly condemned in Scripture.

Be Careful Of Extremes
We should, however, be careful of going to extremes. Not exercising this sinful type of self-love does not mean punishing our bodies, or denying ourselves of the basic needs of life. We find no such practice with Jesus or the New Testament church. It is the worship of self, or putting self above everything else that the Bible condemns.

We Are Special To God
The Bible teaches that we are special to God. This is seen in the fact that Jesus Christ, God the Son, came down from heavens glory to die on our behalf. The Bible says.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:17-19).

Obviously we were worth something to God the Father in order for Him to send Jesus to this earth.

Summary
Loving ourselves is what comes naturally, it is the loving of others that we need to work on. If we love God with all of our heart then we will have a proper type of self-love and love for others.


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