This week I preached on the passage from Matthew, and Paul's quoting of it in Romans, where Jesus said that we should love others as ourselves. I didn't do a good job of it, but as is usually the case, I see many things I should have said that I didn't say. Like for example:
- Because Jesus said that we are to love others as we love ourselves, we are to take from that it is ok to love ourselves, and not only ok, but what we are supposed to do. Loving ourselves is not, however loving ourselves and ourselves alone is. It is when the self love is coupled with the love for others that we are truly loving as we should. There is also that old adage, "you can't expect to love anyone else if you don't love yourself". It is possible that many times we do "love others as we love ourselves" and yet we are still not doing what we should be. For we have such a low view of ourselves.
I know it is a selfish, self-absorbed, "me first", world that we live in. But we can't allow for the pendulum to swing to the other unhealthy end; self loathing. We have value, for we were created in the image of God. That should drive us to love ourselves. We get bogged down by the sin in our lives; an ever present reminder of our imperfection, when we should remind ourselves that sin isn't natural. That's right, sin isn't natural. Of course from the fall we have a sin nature, but it is originally foriegn to us. What is natural is the image of God. Sin is the alien.
I know...rambling....but I couldn't resist.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the message. I agree. John Maxwell does a piece on this and essentially says that to surrender to God is to find a fond appreciation of life, yours and those around you. The more we are able to surrender the more we see the value that God has place on us and life itself.
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