Freely Speaking

I am loved by Love Himself, yet I often have a hard time understanding why. I read the truth of this in Scripture but don’t know how to believe it about myself. In doing this, I doubt the very heart and nature of God. As a Christ-follower, I am an heir and child of the King. It is right and good to honor God by loving myself as He loves me. This requires knowing what true love looks like (1 Cor. 13).

There is a tension felt in our Christian culture with the teachings of Mark 12:31 and Philippians 2:3. The first says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” while the latter says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” We see this in the debates over whether ‘self-care’ is biblical. God’s way is to love ourselves as He loves and from this overflow, extend it to others. God has work for us to do, and we need to be patient, kind, forgiving, and humble to our bodies, hearts, and minds to walk in the good works He has planned for us. That is wisdom.

In Philippians 2:4, we see a very important word: “Look not only to our own interests…but to the interest of others.”  We aren’t called to ignore our interests, but we aren’t supposed to stop there either.

Where do we go wrong? We distort the love of God. Pride replaces humility; selfishness overpowers service. We confuse earthly comforts with eternal gain.

The best way to honor God and others is to have a realistic view of who we are in Christ.
We are loved and esteemed by God. In humility, we can love ourselves by agreeing with what God says.

He calls you, beloved, friends! How will that change the way you treat yourself today?