Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:8–9, ESV)
I am not a Justin Beiber fan (known as Beliebers), but I must admit that I had one of his songs stuck in my head this last summer. It was “Love Yourself.” If you are not familiar with it, you can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/TMSIR210mRg
The lyrics go:
Cause if you like the way you look that much,
Ohh baby, you should go and love yourself.
If you think that I'm still holding onto something,
You should go and love yourself.
Ultimately, the sentiment to go and love yourself was not meant as a positive in this song. It is a song about a guy breaking up with his girlfriend. He points out how vain she is and how she is more in love with herself than she is with him.
Justin Bieber says you should go and love yourself with sarcasm and ridicule. But I want to say with all seriousness and no sarcasm that you should GO AND LOVE YOURSELF. There is a good number of us who need to learn to do this better.
- We are hard on ourselves.
- We struggle with perfectionism.
- We struggle with low self-esteem
- We go out of our way for to make others happy, but neglect our own well-being in doing so.
- We overcommit ourselves out of a sense of obligation to others.
This is not what God intends for us. Our verse of the week concludes: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We often focus on the first part of that verse. Love your neighbor! But we are called to love our neighbor AS OURSELVES. This should not be missed. It does not say love your neighbor and hate yourself. It does not say do good for others and neglect yourself.
It says: Love your neighbor! Love yourself!
So the question is what does it mean to love myself and how do I love myself? I want to continue that discussion this week. But feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Do you believe God wants you to love yourself? How do you love yourself?
Dina Russ says
I think “to love myself” is to do so the way God loves me and each of us. If we are made in his image, as the Bible says, we must see ourselves through His eyes. We have to put aside our own personal judgements; after all, we are our own best critics. Once we learn to see ourselves and one another, once we accept that He loves us despite our “flaws”, we can better receive His love and truly love ourselves. When we love ourselves, we can better love others genuinely for who they are rather than out of expectation or obligation. I don’t think God is obliged to love us. He just does. Trusting in His love and having faith in that kind of love, helps me to love myself and my neighbor, even in those times when they, nor I am not so lovable.