Based on the question:
Should Christian's love themselves, hate themselves or both?
“You cannot love someone else until you first love yourself”.
It’s one of those clichés people use all the time. It wasn’t until a few years ago, after one more failed relationship and losing all hope that I’d ever find love that I really stopped to think about the deeper meaning of that phrase or to figure out why I didn’t love myself.
After the last breakup, I was crying on the shoulder of a dear friend telling her all the reasons why he had left me. I focused on all the things that were wrong with me and why I didn’t fit the criteria he established when mapping out his life. She looked at me and said, “but Heidi what do you want?” I realized then, I didn’t know what I wanted, because I didn’t know who I was. I had no identity. I was truly a lost soul just desperate to be loved and accepted.
A few weeks later, I gave my life to Christ and he has been doing a mighty work
in me ever since to show me who I am and how much value I have just because I am me, a child of God.
Jesus tells us “…love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
It’s funny; I was always pretty good at loving others. It came quite naturally to me, being the excellent codependent that I was (now six years recovered, PTL)!
I remember the day I heard a sermon about love. The pastor focused on the last two words of this second greatest commandment ...as yourself. That sermon shook me out of a forty year deception from the enemy of my soul (you are unwanted, unworthy, you don’t belong anywhere, you don’t have a real family, no one will ever want to marry you, you are damaged goods). When the Holy Spirit illuminated those two words to me it was life changing.
He started showing me my true identity. He showed me gifts He had given me that had laid dormant under layers of shame, guilt and sorrow. I learned that the walls of protection I built might have spared me from some pain in life but I had robbed others of the love and gifts that God gave specifically to me to share with a broken world. Now I know the Truth and while I can’t get back the “lost years”, God has given me a deep passion to help the broken find wholeness in Christ. He has given me poetry and songs to share, a ministry in drama and strong gifts of discernment, prophecy and compassion. He has shown me that this calling on my life is just as much for the church as it is for the lost.
It saddens me to see so many Christians walking with their heads down and focusing on how unworthy they are. I think they have mistaken self degradation for humility. I’m so thankful that I now have a healthy understanding: I am nothing without God, but “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me “(Philippians 4:13).
I believe the answer to the question should I love myself, hate myself or both is clearly stated in the bible when Jesus commands us to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). In fact, when he tells us the greatest commandment of all, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37) and reveals to us through Paul that “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27) he makes it clear…We ought to love ourselves simply because God lives in us. After all, don’t you know you are the temple of God?
Should Christian's love themselves, hate themselves or both?
“You cannot love someone else until you first love yourself”.
It’s one of those clichés people use all the time. It wasn’t until a few years ago, after one more failed relationship and losing all hope that I’d ever find love that I really stopped to think about the deeper meaning of that phrase or to figure out why I didn’t love myself.
After the last breakup, I was crying on the shoulder of a dear friend telling her all the reasons why he had left me. I focused on all the things that were wrong with me and why I didn’t fit the criteria he established when mapping out his life. She looked at me and said, “but Heidi what do you want?” I realized then, I didn’t know what I wanted, because I didn’t know who I was. I had no identity. I was truly a lost soul just desperate to be loved and accepted.
A few weeks later, I gave my life to Christ and he has been doing a mighty work
in me ever since to show me who I am and how much value I have just because I am me, a child of God.
Jesus tells us “…love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
It’s funny; I was always pretty good at loving others. It came quite naturally to me, being the excellent codependent that I was (now six years recovered, PTL)!
I remember the day I heard a sermon about love. The pastor focused on the last two words of this second greatest commandment ...as yourself. That sermon shook me out of a forty year deception from the enemy of my soul (you are unwanted, unworthy, you don’t belong anywhere, you don’t have a real family, no one will ever want to marry you, you are damaged goods). When the Holy Spirit illuminated those two words to me it was life changing.
He started showing me my true identity. He showed me gifts He had given me that had laid dormant under layers of shame, guilt and sorrow. I learned that the walls of protection I built might have spared me from some pain in life but I had robbed others of the love and gifts that God gave specifically to me to share with a broken world. Now I know the Truth and while I can’t get back the “lost years”, God has given me a deep passion to help the broken find wholeness in Christ. He has given me poetry and songs to share, a ministry in drama and strong gifts of discernment, prophecy and compassion. He has shown me that this calling on my life is just as much for the church as it is for the lost.
It saddens me to see so many Christians walking with their heads down and focusing on how unworthy they are. I think they have mistaken self degradation for humility. I’m so thankful that I now have a healthy understanding: I am nothing without God, but “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me “(Philippians 4:13).
I believe the answer to the question should I love myself, hate myself or both is clearly stated in the bible when Jesus commands us to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). In fact, when he tells us the greatest commandment of all, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37) and reveals to us through Paul that “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27) he makes it clear…We ought to love ourselves simply because God lives in us. After all, don’t you know you are the temple of God?