September 5
“’If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.’”
| FROM Conformed to the World | TO Transformed in Christ |
| 9. Love of self; putting self first; loving and nurturing self | 9. Love of God and others; putting God and others first; hating self |
I am one who is appalled at how secular viewpoints and conjectures have invaded the church, particularly through so-called “Christian” counselors and psychologists. It is certainly possible that the author or speaker is a Christian, but be very wary of their teaching, because it is entirely possible that it is anything but Christian. I have seen people get led very much astray and into sin as a result of these so-called “Christian” counselors giving out secular advice, pinning to it a few Bible verses taken out of context and force fit to make them look like they support what the speaker is saying, and calling it “God’s way.”
One of the teachings that the world preaches and therefore, as expected, these Christian counselors and even pastors preach is self love. They teach us that we need to love ourselves first before we can love others. They may tell us that we cannot love God unless we first love ourselves. I imagine that these people are well-meaning, thinking that a love of self bolsters our self-image and enables us to love and accept love from others. Or so that is the theory.
But frankly, I am so skeptical of the theories of man, so unimpressed by the results of the best the world has to offer, so sick and tired of the social experimentation that is being conducted on the world and, due to Christian leaders who are all too eager to walk away from the scriptures and follow the world’s example, on the Church. This is one of the reasons why the church is not very different from the world in many respects, because these so-called Christian leaders lead us away from the scriptures and away from Christ.
But anyway, from my perspective, my biggest problem is that I love myself too much, not too little. These ideas that I need to love myself more are garbage and lies, in my opinion, and will lead to people who are even more narcissistic than we already are. Especially for those of us who habitually indulge fleshly lusts, even immoral behaviors, we need to hate ourselves and stop loving ourselves. We need to hate the behavior of sinners and the old man sold out to sinful lusts. We need to love Christ more than ourselves, and we need to have compassion and concern for others far in excess of our selfish self-indulgences. We must be transformed from people who love ourselves and put ourselves first to those who hate ourselves and love God and others far, far more.
ASSIGNMENT: Think through and write down all the things you do that are centered on you, that cater to you, that make you feel good, that entertain you, that help you to enjoy life or relax or have a good time or will better your well-being in this life in some way. Note which things you do that are or could be sin or unprofitable in God’s sight. Think through and write down all the activities that you do that are done purely for God and others, with no material or obvious gain or benefit for you. Think through and write down all the thoughts and activities you have that make it evident that you love yourself, and which make it evident that you hate yourself. (Note: be careful here, because often self-loathing and self-destructive behaviors mask a less-obvious kind of self-love, the kind that has an overly inflated high view of oneself and what one should have or be in life, which, if this ideal expectation is not met, it can result in pouting, loathing, rebelling, or trying to punish self and others. A truly humble person would realize that they are not much apart from Christ and want Christ to fill them and make them into someone worthy of love and blessing.) Ask God to give you a hatred of your unregenerate flesh, your old man, your sinful passions and desires, your human centered aspirations and goals. Ask Him to fill you so much with love for Him and others that you yourself are not even on your radar screen, not part of your agenda. Especially those caught in immorality need a hatred for the flesh and its lusts. Ask and keep asking God to bring about this total transformation in you.