Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 12, 2024
Last August on a walk in our neighborhood I noticed the sticker on the back of this car: LOVE YOURSELF.
I’ve always been a little queasy about this sentiment. Several years ago I felt similarly spooked about the “self-esteem” idea. Coming from a Christian culture which taught me about the Fall, and that “all have sinned and come short of God’s glory”, the “love yourself” idea seemed pretty selfish. Hadn’t that been Lucifer’s sin?
But if you know your Bible a bit, you’ll have also heard statements both the Old Testament and Jesus made. “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people,” says Leviticus 19:18, “but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” And Jesus quoted a phrase from that text in Mark 12:31.
So, is self-love okay? Evidently so, if it’s the right kind of self-love. How can you tell if your self-love is the right kind? You tell by loving your neighbor with that same kind of love. Narcissism, which is the bad kind of self-love, centers all your thoughts and actions around you. This means you have little or no room for real love, described by Paul as the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22 – 23)
These are qualities of love directed toward other people—and come from people who realize that God loves them so deeply that they are free to move within this love.
Here’s a link to several Bible texts about true love.