Question:
"Learning to love yourself/It is the greatest love of all," sings Whitney Houston, and though they might not admit it, I get the impression that a lot of CGRers believe that statement. I do not. (Tangentially, I also do not believe that you can only love someone as much as you love yourself.) So...
Tell me what you think about self-love.
Answer:
I think I see both sides of the fence... I have issues (like everyone else ) but specifically, self esteem and so on. There are moments where I can barely live in my skin because I dislike myself so much and in those times it's impossible to believe that anyone else could love me. Maybe learning to love yourself isn't the greatest love of all... and maybe we should the Bible would be a better place to turn for solid advice on "greatest love" than pop music...
Answer:
Jesus could have just said "love your neighbor" or even "love your neighbor with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," but He specifically said to "love your neighbor as yourself." If you don't love yourself, then loving your neighbor "as yourself" is not love at all. This seems to imply that love for others stems from a love for yourself.
That said, Jesus also said that "no greater love has any man than this: that he would lay down his life for his friends." 100% self-love would obviously not allow you to do this, because your life would be more important to you than your friends.
I don't think Christian humility is necessarily a condemnation or disapproval of self-love. Christian humility is not only loving others as you love yourself, but loving others more than you love yourself. "Let each one of you look out not only for his own needs, but also for the needs of others; in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself." Look out for your own needs, love yourself, but love others more and God still more.
My music marketing professor shared that he used to keep a note on his bathroom mirror that read "me third." He explained that it was a reminder to him to put God first, others second, and himself third. I think that is the most balanced and Biblical approach to the idea of self-love.
In His love,
Nate
Answer:
Originally Posted by bobthecockroach "Learning to love yourself/It is the greatest love of all," sings Whitney Houston, and though they might not admit it, I get the impression that a lot of CGRers believe that statement. I do not. (Tangenitally, I also do not believe that you can only love someone as much as you love yourself.) So...
Tell me what you think about self-love.
I don't think ts all that important personally.
Answer:
Originally Posted by bobthecockroach "Learning to love yourself/It is the greatest love of all," sings Whitney Houston, and though they might not admit it, I get the impression that a lot of CGRers believe that statement. I do not. (Tangenitally, I also do not believe that you can only love someone as much as you love yourself.) So...
Tell me what you think about self-love.
I was thinking about this tonight and a song popped into my head... I was thinking of the song know you better by reality check.
That is really my thought on the matter, that my love for my God would be greater than myself. That I would neglect my selfish pride. Just a thought. Id agree with you because Jesus said the greatest show of love was laying down your life for a friend. That entails that you hold their life as of more value than your own.
Answer:
there are so many differing types of love that it would be silly to really compare them with each other. They all serve a special purpose in our relationship with God and with each other. Obviously the love we have from God is the greatest, as shown by His Grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. But I wonder if that alone would save us? Wouldn't we also need to have a love of ourselves on some level, to even accept the Grace of God? I dont know the answer to this, so feel free to discuss this as an extension to this thread. I think answering this question might help us to come to a better understanding of what Bob was asking.
My opinion is that each type of love is so interelated with each other that it makes them all equally important in our walk with God - except for God's love, as it came first before all other loves (read Peter for more info on God's love).
I also tend to agree with Bill that its not really important... but what the hey, lets talk about it anyway. Cheers.
Answer:
My music marketing professor shared that he used to keep a note on his bathroom mirror that read "me third." He explained that it was a reminder to him to put God first, others second, and himself third. I think that is the most balanced and Biblical approach to the idea of self-love.
reminds me of an acronym I heard from a Children's musical...
J- Jesus
O- others
Y- you
I was thinking about this tonight and a song popped into my head... I was thinking of the song know you better by reality check.
That is a good song :nods:
The greatest love of all is the love God showed us on the Christ. Thinking about the "Love others as yourself passage" my ethics professor said that the 10 commandments can be divided into "Love God, Love others" so that got me thinking, loving others as yourself isn't really about loving yourself more but less, I mean, who doesn't seek thier own interest and protection? Is it harder to be selfish or self-less? I havn't done a full exegesis on this passage, so I'm just throwing a thought out, but it seems to be that the love Christ calls us to is a selfless love.