In an earlier post, we talked about why it is good and right to love yourself. To recap: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Mark 12:31. You can’t love your neighbor properly if you don’t love yourself. It’s good to love yourself. To seek your own good is not sinful. By seeking your own good, you are able to seek good for others.
Many people don’t love themselves, or at least behave as if they don’t love themselves.
In Jordan Peterson’s book, “12 Rules for Life”, his second rule is “Treat yourself like you are someone you are responsible for helping.” The reason he says this is that many people do not treat themselves well. Peterson illustrates by comparing when someone takes a dog to a vet and gets the dog medicine, and when a person goes to a doctor and gets their own medicine. He says the data shows that a person is much more likely to make sure the dog is given it’s medicine than they are to make sure they take their own medicine. Could it be that deep down, they feel the dog is more deserving to be taken care of than they themselves are?
One reason may be that we know ourselves. Even the people closest to us might know some of our sins, weaknesses, and failures. But everyone knows all of his / her own sins, weaknesses, and failures. Every bad thing all of your live, from the time you were born until now. Every thought, every deed, every failure to act when you could have.
The scriptures remind us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
Why then should you love yourself?
Because Jesus Christ paid the price for sin. He is able to cleanse.
“The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide:
neither will he keep his anger for ever.
He hath not dealth with us after our sins;
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalms 103:8-12
God has created you in His own image, and has declared you worth loving. “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” Jeremiah 31:3. “For God so loved the world” John 3:16.
Just as you know everything about yourself, God knows everything about you, from the beginning of your life until now. All the good and all the bad. He loves you.
God wants your good, and your happiness. He wants you to seek your own good and your own happiness. Your greatest good, your greatness happiness is found in your relationship to God, drawing close to God, seeking Him with all your heart.
If you treat yourself like someone you care about, how would that look? What would you be thinking? How would you be acting? What would you be doing / not doing?
Love yourself today.