Love Self!

May 29, 2025

Love Self!

We are commanded to love! 

The love commandment is more than a suggestion or a recommendation.  The love commandment is more than an expectation or an aspiration.  The love commandment is more than good advice or a sincere request.  The love commandment is more than a moral directive or a social mandate.

We are commanded to love!   

When challenged by the spiritual leaders of the first century, Jesus describes the greatest of all the commandments.  In Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus says; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.”     

Jesus follows the greatest commandment with a second commandment which He says is equally important.  In Matthew 22:39 Jesus says; “And a second (commandment) is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Unfortunately, many of us often miss the last part of the commandment.

Jesus commands us to love our self; to value our self, to accept our self, to love our self just like Jesus loves us!  In Matthew 22:39 Jesus says; “And a second (commandment) is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

First, we are commanded to love Jesus.  Second, we are commanded to love one another.  Third, we are commanded to love our self.  Sometimes loving our self in the way that Jesus loves us is the most difficult of the three expressions of our love.

And yet, our very identity is tied up in Jesus’ love for us, our love for one another, and our love for our self.  We love our self because we are created to be and honored by our Creator as “children of God.’

In I John 3:1-3 we hear; “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.  What we do know is this: when heis revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.  And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

The challenge in loving our self often starts with our definition of love.  We all know people who say they love themselves but are nothing more than self-absorbed, self-centered, and self-promoting.  They are not the kind of people we enjoy being around.  They are not the kind of people our Creator would use as an example of a child of God.

We want to value our self, we want to accept our self, and we want to know we are a child of God.  And yet, pride, greed, and lust can destroy that image of God embedded in our very soul.  We are prone to distort and diminish our value as a child of God by loving self too much, by loving other people too much, or by loving our things too much.

Love begins with the Lord God because God is love.  We cannot really love other people and we cannot rightly love our self until we know the love of God in our heart, soul, mind, and body.  In I John 4:16 we hear; “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” 

The Apostle John says those who love Jesus, love others, and love themselves “…abide in God, and God abides in them.”  Even though love is commanded by God, sometimes it is a struggle to love our self.

Some of us have been told by our parents, our siblings, our friends, or our teachers that we are worthless or stupid or ugly.  Others have made some spectacular mistakes in judgement that led to a devastating failure, caused unspeakable pain to another person or to our self, or compromised our integrity to such a degree we believe we are not redeemable or not forgivable or not recoverable.    

Instead of a healthy and even Christ-like love for our self, we are sometimes convinced we have little worth, no purpose, and no place in Jesus’ arms.  When we fail to see ourselves as precious and loved children of God, we make excuses for our unholy behavior and words, we rationalize the pain we cause others, and we continually see ourselves as much less than who God says we are.

Here are some questions to ponder this week.

+Does your most amazing failure prevent you from loving yourself as a child of God?

+Does your deepest regret get in the way of loving yourself like Jesus loves you?

+Does your most profound pain block you from valuing yourself like the Lord God values you?
+Does your pride prop up a false understanding of who you are rather than give you the assurance you are accepted by your Creator?

There is a delicate dance between loving our self in an unhealthy and unholy way and loving our self in the way that Jesus loves us, accepts us, and dreams for us.  For all kinds of different reasons, I fear most of us have from time to time been on both sides of that line.   

My friend loves the Lord and does a pretty good job at loving other people.  However, my friend struggles greatly with loving them selves.  They are tempted to point to something or someone in the past for the difficulty in loving and valuing and honoring themselves.  It is a continual struggle that far too often results in their life being filled with self-doubt or an obsession with their pain or questioning how much Jesus really loves them.

Unfortunately, no one else can resolve the problem for that person.  Because love (for God, for others, AND for self) begins with God, they must go deeper in their relationship with Jesus so they know His love more fully.  They must more deeply trust the Word of God that says over and over and over again they are a precious and loved child of God.  They must make a decision every morning and every evening (if not several more times during the day!) that they are not only worth loving but they have a special place in the loving arms of Jesus.

When these shifts begin to take place, they (and you and me) will be more able to love themselves in the same way that Jesus loves them.  When that happens, they will be filled with more and more delight in the Lord.  That love will open up an amazing way to live a life that has not always been perfect.

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug