Self Love is a Lie

Yeah, that's right. You heard me. Self love is a lie.

This statement that has been making it's way around like the flu for decades and plagues our minds can't be from the Bible, can it?

"We can't love others unless we love ourselves."

WHAT? How can that be? I'm sure the Bible says at least once to "deny yourself" (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Rom 6). Who on earth, if he loved himself, would want to deny himself?

We've got it twisted. Let's take a look at the "love" chapter... no, not 1 Cor 13.... 1 John 4.

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Deeeeep. Now read it again.

Did you see anything about loving yourself in there? I didn't. I saw a lot about loving God and loving my brothers. I also saw "We love because he first loved us." Why do we love? Because we love ourselves? No! Because GOD loved US. That's how we are able to love.

Question:
Do you think that Jesus would've died on the cross if he loved himself?
Or to put it more in perspective: Would you die on a cross if you valued your life?

Jesus died on the cross because he loved the Father, not himself. (Yes, in the sense of the trinity he loved himself because he is God, but that's not the point I'm getting at here.) If Jesus loved himself, I'm pretty convinced he would've taken the glory Satan offered him when he was tempted in the desert.

If we love ourselves it is nearly impossible to love others. As one of my professors puts it:

"What's the opposite of love? Self-love."

Ways of the Righteous

"Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish."
Psalm 1

A righteous man receives counsel from the wise; he doesn't cause his brother to stumble, and speaks only words that build up (Galatians 5:15).
His passion is for God's Word, and that is his sustenance. He waits on the Lord (Ps 46:10).
God decides what fruit and at what time. There is no burning out for the one who's way is know and decided by God and is lived out by the power of God. He prospers because he is not operating out of self, but out of God's strength. Walking by the Spirit produces fruit, renewed strength, and a prosperous hand. The wicked, by contrast, are like dust in the wind. Operating out of self may be effective for so long, however the works of an "I can do this" hand will soon crumble. God is preparing a place for the righteous, a place for those who operate in and by the Spirit. Someday the righteous will be gathered as a congregation, but those who do things on their own will have no place in it.

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." Galatians 5:25

Paying off Debt

I am greatly in debt. I have sinned against my Savior even since I have accepted the forgiveness. My ongoing question is this: what does it mean to be a slave to righteousness? I have been a Christian for over seven years and sometimes I fear I am still a slave to sin, a slave to my flesh. I am greatly in debt.

My debt ranges from the continuation of living by the flesh, all the way to doing things for my righteous being. So, if I am a sinner saved by grace, how is it that sometimes I still choose to sin against my Savior? If I am choosing to sin against Him, then there is no way that I am a slave to righteousness.

My reaction? Although subconscious, it is still my reaction. I have tried to do right. I have acted as righteous. I have performed acts that people have seen as righteous. I have tried to conform myself to what the world wants to see as righteous. I have tried to go without mistake, however, any ongoing sin will be brought to justice. My sin: doing right, trying to work out my own righteousness and not the righteousness of God. My sin is my attempt to pay off debt, not necessarily for the good of God, but for my own good. I feel torn like Luther was torn in his search for salvation. He served God after making a deal with Him. "God, get me out of this storm alive and I'll become a monk." Luther was a man of extremes. He was the best monk there ever was, praying more, studying more, doing everything more than the other monks. But why did he do it? He realized he despised God. He did not love God. He did not do the things he did because he loved God, but because he wanted to secure his salvation.

Luther is a major factor for why the church is the way it is today. He sought to inform people of justification through faith and not by works. Works are a proof of faith, but faith must come first. Works are the fruit of our faith in God. I am not going to go into now what it is to have faith.

So, how do I become a slave to righteousness. I do good, I have faith, but I do not feel as if I am doing this all for God. I want to be a good person. I don't want people to be disapointed in me, and I definitely don't want to hurt anyone. But this is my selfishness showing. I am to be selfless.

I think it may come down to just reflecting on how in debt I am to my God. While I was still a sinner, He died for me. He DIED. And I was still a sinner. I am still a sinner today, but now I am a sinner saved by grace. His grace is enough. His blood has already cleansed me of my debt. I cannot pay off the debt. But I can live my life for Him. The only way I can receive God's grace is by declaring bankruptcy. I am so indebted to my God that I cannot get myself out of this hole I dug deep. It is His grace that is sufficient for getting me out of the debt. There is no payment big enough to get me out of this debt other than the payment Christ made on the cross.

I want to be a slave to righteousness, but first, I must declare bankruptcy for my sin.

The First Steps

So, I might as well clue you in on what I have been doing so far in gaining this self-control. My mom ocassionaly reminds me that I will rarely be taken seriously as an overweight minister. Ministers are called to flow with the fruits of the Spirit, and if we're lacking in one area (self-control) we could be lacking in all others. Obesity often flows from a lack of control over eating habits. My adventure in gaining control over my eating habits starts with cutting out white flour and discovering throughout the Bible what God has to say about food. Also, my mom has me reading "The Life You Want" by Bob Greene, but so far I've only read the intro.

When I was in Eugene, OR a few weeks ago visiting my grandparents, I was walking through the neighborhood and saw a neighborhood organic garden that had been developed in an open patch of land between two houses that at one point was supposed to be a road, but they probably decided they didn't need a road there. When I walked by, all I could think was, "this is the way it's supposed to be." Now, am I right about that? I'm not sure yet. But thinking about the creation account in Genesis, God creates the earth, and with every new thing He creates, He always says it's good. Now, if God created all things good, then why don't we live like that.

Where I'm at in this adventure right now, is I'm thinking that if God created all things good, then why would some things not be good for us? Anything in excess (besides the Holy Spirit of course) is not good. Eating an excessive amount of food is gluttony. I think that God created some things good for us to eat (which give us the nutrients we need to sustain us and keep us healthy) and then some things that if we were to eat would harm our body (chemicals, steel, wood chips). Can this also be applied to the food we eat? Genesis 1:29 says "And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.'" (The verse right after this is very interesting too, but I'm not going to get into vegitarian vs. carnivore stuff right now). Right now, I'm really thinking and nearly believing that God made foods affect us in certain ways. Some foods are necessary and some are not. Why do we eat the foods that are not necessary? Why do we mix certain ingredients (that can be good) together with another ingredient (which can also be good) in order to make something that has a negative effect on our body (i.e. Twinkies).

So, in my adventure for healthy eating, this is where I currently stand. I am going to eat the things God created good for me, and avoid those that can potentially harm my body.

The Adventure

Well, I'm on an adventure. God hasn't only taken me out of my comfort zone, He's taken me so far outside my comfort zone that I am living in an impoverish area in Hawaii. The only white people in my neighborhood are the ones I live with. It's not safe for us to walk outside alone after dark. But God has us here. Why? I have yet to know why I am here, but I know that God is doing something in me.

I believe God puts us through seasons. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Solomon writes about how there is a season for everything. In our seasons, we learn specific things from God. He tests our faith, so that we can rely on Him more and more (James 1:2-4).

The season I am in now is learning self-control. Now, having the label of a controlling person is never good. God does not say we are to be controlling. No, He wants us to give Him complete control of our lives. But self-control is different. Paul says that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal 5:22-23, emphasis added). My adventure is to find out what it is to be a self-controlled person.

My goals is to have self-control, especially in these areas:
-physical health
-time management
-eating habits
-relationships with others
-finances

So, you can either join me on this adventure, sit back and enjoy the ride, or think it's like any of those other posts about someone wanting to get healthy, or live for Jesus type of deal. Let me tell you this: Our God has a purpose for everything. He did not create the world as just a mediocre waiting place for us until we go to heaven. He created it good, and He said we are "very good." Go, read the creation account in the first three chapters of Genesis and decide for yourself what kind of god He is.