The royal law of love is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Some say that you cannot love your neighbor as yourself if you do not love yourself.
In our culture today, there is talk about self-love.
Should we love ourselves? While the wording is Biblically incorrect, there are practical truths to keep.
Those who say we should love ourselves come from a place where they see people hate their lives.
For instance, there are some people who are overweight, don’t keep good relationships, or they struggle to pay their bills.
When they get home they deal with depression.
How can we help those who battle with this? Some say they need more self love. What does the Bible say?
A relevant passage is 2 Timothy 3:1-5 which reads, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving...”
A lover of self in this passage means we do not care about anyone but ourselves. This is bad.
God gives grace to the humble not to the prideful.
I don’t think most of us deal with lack of a self-love, I believe we deal with a dislike of our life.
In the Christian circle, the phrase love yourself will not work if you use it because of this passage in 2 Timothy.
We must throw that phrase out. What is important is to take care of our physical bodies.
We must avoid burnout. We must take time to get the proper sleep and rest.
Here’s an illustration of the importance of taking care of yourself.
A Father of three gets a diagnosis of diabetes. He’s living his life, but is caught up in being a single father.
This man needs to raise his children, but also needs to eat healthy and find time to work out. Maybe the kids can take a nap and he can do a workout for 30 minutes or so. This is family love.
Because if the parent becomes unhealthy and sick, the family will hurt.
The family needs the parents to take care of themselves so that the family will do great.
We need to take care of what God has given to us. Sadly we cannot save anyone after we die.
We can’t preach to anyone in heaven -bour mission is on this Earth.
It is about loving this world so much that we take them with us to Heaven.
What you need to remember is it’s God’s love. God loves you more than yourself!
There is a love void in all of our hearts.
We can try and fill it in with money, a relationship, concert tickets, new truck, or a new job. Ultimately, you do not love from the world. You need God’s love.
Peter once quoted the Old Testamen, which said, “For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.” (1 Peter 3:10) (NIV).
Do you have moments where you hate life and see bad days?
If so, remember that this is not God’s will for your life.
God has a heart and he wants you to love your life.
The only love that truly works is the love of God.
