The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Samuel 18:1,
"After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself."
Some of the most ignorant of sermons I used to hear from time to time in years past would begin with the misguided proposition that unless we love our own selves, we cannot adequately love God or others. Therefore, we must learn to love ourselves first!
Reread 1 Samuel 18:1 again. Note that in order to help us understand the level of love Jonathan had for David, the Scriptures use the measure of self-love as a comparison to denote how deep this love was.
Loving oneself in the Scriptures is a given. We are told the problem with our sinful natures is that we love ourselves too much! We seek those things that gratify, that satisfy. Why? Because we love ourselves so much we often seek to please ourselves more than loving God and others. It has impact on the many ways we express our sinful nature.
It is self love that might cause us to find ourselves in the cross-hairs of passages such as Romans 2:8, "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Rejecting truth and following evil is part and parcel of "self-seeking", the very expression of self love.
Self love is the natural disposition of lost and fallen mankind. We only have to be born to find ourselves engrossed in our selves. Lets be honest here. In Galatians 5 we read that selfish ambition comes from our sinful nature, however, self-control is a gift we receive from the Holy Spirit as he does his work in our lives. Self control begins with a denying of that which our self-love wants to pursue.
When the church adopts the concepts provided from pop-culture and pop-psychology we find ourselves adrift, lost in the concepts this world is all to happy to send our way. Suicide, depression and the like can often (but not always) be rooted in the self-absorption that is brought by self love.
Lets look to the Scriptures for truth. Lets get over ourselves and begin to subordinate our natural self-love for love of God and love of one another. I never found a verse that exhorted us to love ourselves (if you have found one, please let me know). On the contrary, I find verses that look more like, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-13. This is something we can only do when we begin to deny ourselves, loose our self-absorption, and start focusing love on others.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
"After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself."
Some of the most ignorant of sermons I used to hear from time to time in years past would begin with the misguided proposition that unless we love our own selves, we cannot adequately love God or others. Therefore, we must learn to love ourselves first!
Reread 1 Samuel 18:1 again. Note that in order to help us understand the level of love Jonathan had for David, the Scriptures use the measure of self-love as a comparison to denote how deep this love was.
Loving oneself in the Scriptures is a given. We are told the problem with our sinful natures is that we love ourselves too much! We seek those things that gratify, that satisfy. Why? Because we love ourselves so much we often seek to please ourselves more than loving God and others. It has impact on the many ways we express our sinful nature.
It is self love that might cause us to find ourselves in the cross-hairs of passages such as Romans 2:8, "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Rejecting truth and following evil is part and parcel of "self-seeking", the very expression of self love.
Self love is the natural disposition of lost and fallen mankind. We only have to be born to find ourselves engrossed in our selves. Lets be honest here. In Galatians 5 we read that selfish ambition comes from our sinful nature, however, self-control is a gift we receive from the Holy Spirit as he does his work in our lives. Self control begins with a denying of that which our self-love wants to pursue.
When the church adopts the concepts provided from pop-culture and pop-psychology we find ourselves adrift, lost in the concepts this world is all to happy to send our way. Suicide, depression and the like can often (but not always) be rooted in the self-absorption that is brought by self love.
Lets look to the Scriptures for truth. Lets get over ourselves and begin to subordinate our natural self-love for love of God and love of one another. I never found a verse that exhorted us to love ourselves (if you have found one, please let me know). On the contrary, I find verses that look more like, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-13. This is something we can only do when we begin to deny ourselves, loose our self-absorption, and start focusing love on others.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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