The Parenthetical Greatest Commandment = Love Yourself!

[St. SteVen]

A follow-up to this forum topic.

Commanded to love God more than we love ourselves?

This is easy to overlook, but well worth discussing. IMHO

Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Mark 12:30-31 NIV
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a]
31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”

Questions: How much should we love our neighbor?
- If we hate ourselves, should we hate our neighbor? No!
- If we demean ourselves, should we demean our neighbor? No!
- If we view ourselves as undeserving, should we view our neighbor as undeserving? No!

Can we really love our neighbor properly if we don't FIRST properly love ourselves?

Questions;
- What can we do to PROPERLY love ourselves?
- Why would we take a dim view of ourselves in the first place?
- Can we TRULY love our neighbor PROPERLY if we don't love ourselves?

I mean seriously. Go look at yourself in the mirror and declare, "I am a lovely person!" - LOL



God loves us unconditionally, shouldn't we do the same?

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[O'Darby]

Here is my little contribution from your Christian Maturity thread:

I would only add that in addition to selfless love, IMO self-love has a role to play as well. I irritate many on forums such as this (and elsewhere) because I don't play the game of pretending to hate myself and thinking God sees my best deeds as dirty rags. Yes, I and my best deeds are far below the standard of God's perfect holiness, but I'm quite pleased with myself and am confident God is pleased with my little efforts. This, I believe, is the real message: "You're not holy" - not "You're disgusting and unworthy." I might even say selfless love, toward God and others, is impossible without self-love.

My brother-in-law, who is a quasi-Christian quasi-Buddhist, once said to me, not as any particular compliment, "You seem like one of those people who will do things for others without expecting anything in return. Not me." Just now I looked up the definition of selfless love and found: "Selfless love is your ability to show respect, kindness, and compassion toward everyone and not expect anything in return. Someone who loves selflessly is willing to make sacrifices for others and helps even the people they may not necessarily like."

Do I really think of myself as selfless? No, but I have sufficient self-love and confidence in God's love and care for me that I have no real needs, nothing I feel I have to protect, no particular fears, and thus can be (or try to be) generous and compassionate with others.

Quoting myself - the highest form of flattery!

 

[Wick Stick]

The original verse provides a little insight:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19)

The middle of Leviticus is NOT where I expected to find this verse. In a book of instructions for priests that includes a lot of "purge the evil from among yourselves," and "put him to death," and "stone him," this verse seems a little... out of place?

 

[Lambano]

God probably figured most people don't have much of a problem loving themselves when He gave that commandment. They may not be too fond of their own company sometimes, but they're usually pretty concerned about keeping themselves warm, well-fed, and happy.

 

[Jack]

"The Parenthetical Greatest Commandment = Love Yourself!"

Interesting. I'm sure those many here who reject the Christian Bible "love themselves".

 

[St. SteVen]

O'Darby said:
I would only add that in addition to selfless love, IMO self-love has a role to play as well. I irritate many on forums such as this (and elsewhere) because I don't play the game of pretending to hate myself and thinking God sees my best deeds as dirty rags. Yes, I and my best deeds are far below the standard of God's perfect holiness, but I'm quite pleased with myself and am confident God is pleased with my little efforts. This, I believe, is the real message: "You're not holy" - not "You're disgusting and unworthy." I might even say selfless love, toward God and others, is impossible without self-love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yup, that's good. Very on-topic.

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[St. SteVen]

Quoting myself - the highest form of flattery!

Careful...
Kissing the mirror will give you chapped lips. - LOL

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[St. SteVen]

The original verse provides a little insight:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19)

The middle of Leviticus is NOT where I expected to find this verse. In a book of instructions for priests that includes a lot of "purge the evil from among yourselves," and "put him to death," and "stone him," this verse seems a little... out of place?

That's good, thanks.
What does this tell us about self-love?

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[O'Darby]

O'Darby said:
I would only add that in addition to selfless love, IMO self-love has a role to play as well. I irritate many on forums such as this (and elsewhere) because I don't play the game of pretending to hate myself and thinking God sees my best deeds as dirty rags. Yes, I and my best deeds are far below the standard of God's perfect holiness, but I'm quite pleased with myself and am confident God is pleased with my little efforts. This, I believe, is the real message: "You're not holy" - not "You're disgusting and unworthy." I might even say selfless love, toward God and others, is impossible without self-love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yup, that's good. Very on-topic.

/

Once again, I think it comes down to the fundamental distinction between those who see God as a dour, grim, stone-faced Judge who pretty much hates His own creation and spends most of His time looking for reasons to be offended and feed His wrath and those who view Him as more of a loving Father who views His creation with a considerable sense of humor and irony, not unlike a good human father views his own children. Trying to mentally juggle the God of the OT and the God of the NT is a challenge, but surely the New Covenant should speak to us more strongly than the Old.

 

[Lambano]

The original verse provides a little insight:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19)

I rarely see anyone plotting revenge against themselves. "I'll get me for this. If it's the last thing I do, I'll get me for this! 'From hell’s heart I stab at me; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at myself!'"

Nah. We're usually pretty forgiving of ourselves.

 

[St. SteVen]

God probably figured most people don't have much of a problem loving themselves when he wrote that commandment. They may not be too fond of their own company sometimes, but they're usually pretty concerned about keeping themselves warm, well-fed, and happy.

And that may be the thrust of it.
See to it that your neighbor is taken care of as well as you take care of yourself.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

A bag of groceries when they hunger.
A hand to help them up when they fall.
A visit when they are ill. (or in prison)
Clothes when they are cold or naked.
Help to start their car.
Help for the stranger stalled on the highway.

Basically Good Samaritan stuff.

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[Lambano]

Careful...
Kissing the mirror will give you chapped lips. - LOL

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And that reminds me of a graffito I saw on a long-forgotten men's room wall:

"Masturbation is making love to the person you love most."

A bit crude - but relevant to the discussion.

 

[St. SteVen]

A bit perverse - but relevant to the discussion.

Sounds like a quote from the Woody Allen movie Annie Hall?

Woody Allen Quote

Don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love.

libquotes.com

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[Lambano]

This one is not a verse that I would post in the "Encouraging Scriptures" thread, but it's about denying the self-love we have naturally and giving it to others:

 

[St. SteVen]

This one is not a verse that I would post in the "Encouraging Scriptures" thread, but it's about denying the self-love we have naturally and giving it to others:

Isn't it more about denying self-AMBITION than self-love?
We take up the cross DAILY to follow Jesus.

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[St. SteVen]

We take up the cross DAILY to follow Jesus.

That would make a good bumper sticker.

-- DID YOU TAKE UP THE CROSS TODAY? --

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[Lambano]

Isn't it more about denying self-AMBITION than self-love?

Self-ambition is usually about self-love, isn't it? About bettering one's self and one's own life situation and building up one's self (i.e. one's own ego)? All things we should be doing for others.

Are we talking about loving yourself (so far we have doing good things for yourself and forgiving yourself) or LIKING yourself?

 

[St. SteVen]

Self-ambition is usually about self-love, isn't it? About bettering one's self and one's own life situation and building up one's self (i.e. one's own ego)? All things we should be doing for others.

Are we talking about loving yourself (so far we have doing good things for yourself and forgiving yourself) or LIKING yourself?

It's difficult to bless others if our own lives are a train wreck of self-neglect.

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[Wick Stick]

That's good, thanks.
What does this tell us about self-love?

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It tells us that self-forgiveness is required.

 

[Wick Stick]

I rarely see anyone plotting revenge against themselves. "I'll get me for this. If it's the last thing I do, I'll get me for this! 'From hell’s heart I stab at me; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at myself!'"

Nah. We're usually pretty forgiving of ourselves.

Disagree. People usually make excuses for themselves. They rationalize. I don't reckon that to be forgiveness.

Forgiveness requires one to first recognize their guilt, and then absolve.