Title: Someone Who Can Love Himself
Contents
♡♥♡ Someone who knows how to love themselves / Galatians 5:13-18
*** Introduction
Are you familiar with a disease called autism? Autism is an 'emotional developmental disorder' that mainly occurs in children. It is a mental symptom of creating one's own closed space and trying to settle in it. They think of dreams and reality backwards, and they think of their dreams as reality, and they do not want to accept reality by thinking of reality as a dream. They avoid people and have behavioral traits that stick to one thing they know.
On the other hand, among the modern diseases of the elderly, there is 'self-awareness'. As the population of the elderly increases due to the development of medical technology, one of the psychological adaptations that occurs in old age is 'jaxism'. It is a psychological phenomenon that comes from a sense of loss of social and family status as we get older. They abuse themselves and have a painful effect on those around them as well.
Young people suffer from ‘escapism’. Like ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’, where you try to live only as a child in later life, you escape from the burdensome reality into your own world or fall into alcohol, drugs, and physical pleasures.
Autism, autism, escapism, etc. All of these are symptoms of a lack of self-understanding. In other words, they do not know about ‘who are they?’ and ‘what kind of existence are they?’. Those who do not have an identity for themselves end up abusing themselves rather than loving themselves and isolating themselves into the world they have created. These mental symptoms of modern people are ‘love deficiency syndrome’.
Love has three directions. The first is love to receive, the second is self-love, and the third is love to give. Among these three, the first love was ‘received love’. A person who has not been loved, or who does not know how to receive love, cannot have the next love. Those who have been loved know how to love themselves. If you have been loved but do not know how to love yourself, you cannot love others. A person who is loved and who loves himself can love another being. If you don't pour out your love towards other beings, that love will become sick.
1 John 3:16 and 4:19 define this fact as follows: First, 3:16. “By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought also to lay down our lives for our brethren.” And in verse 19 he says, “We love because he first loved us.”
Now let's get to the main text.
This text teaches the principles of Christian living. The Christian life principle is to live according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What is the connection between ‘living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit’ and ‘love’? This is not the degree of connection, but without love, you cannot follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What kind of love is this love? I would like to focus on the second of the three types of love, ‘self-love’.
First, let's look at the reason why we focus on 'self-love'.
You and I are already receiving the greatest love through Jesus Christ. If I had rejected that love, I wouldn't be here. Verse 13 says, “Brothers, you have been called to freedom.” To be “called” is a call into the love of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have nothing more to discuss about ‘receiving love’.
In that case, what remains is also “serving one another out of love” as verse 13 says. To “serve with love” is “love to give”. However, the word “only” is attached here. In other words, ‘received love’ is not consumed for self-sufficiency, but ‘poured out toward others’, showing that it is the only way to receive God’s approval.
Let's start with the misleading pitfalls here.
It is ‘self-consuming love’ that expresses “taking an opportunity for the flesh” mentioned in verse 13 of the main text. 'Self-consuming love' refers to self-pleasure love only for oneself. It is to use the love received from God, that is, the grace of talent, health, material, and children, for self-satisfaction. There are words that are easy to understand.
Are you familiar with the term 'narcissism'? In psychoanalysis, it is a term used to describe self-love (self-love). This word comes from Greek mythology.
Narcissus is the son of the Boeotian river god Cephisus and the nymph Liliope. Narcissus had a very beautiful appearance, and for this beauty, many virgins and nymphs wooed him, but he had no interest. Echo, the nymph of the forest and spring, also loved him, but he was punished by Hera, the supreme deity among goddesses, to ‘repeat only the last syllable he heard with his ears and could not speak’, so he could not convey his feelings. In the end, when Echo was ignored by Narcissus, he lost his form and became thin, leaving only an echo. When Echo prayed to Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, ‘Let Narcissus suffer the same pain of love,’ he granted it.
While hunting on Mount Helicon, Narcissus was thirsty and approached the spring, but fell in love with his own beautiful reflection in the water. In the place of his death, a flower bloomed in place of his body, and was named after him, Narcissus (Narcissus).
Citing this story, psychoanalysis called narcissism, which is too much egocentrism for the self.
This is false self-love. As the text says, it is ‘self-consuming love’. It's not about benefiting others, it's a selfish way of living that thinks and acts around you. Today, there are many people who live a life of faith for self-satisfaction because this idea has entered the church.
Let's look at verse 14. “The whole law was fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Love of neighbor” is “love of giving.” But the root of love to give is “as your own body.” In other words, “love as yourself” means “as if you love yourself.” If you can't love yourself, you can't love your neighbor. So, what is the right way to love yourself?
Then, let's define the self-love that the Lord speaks of.
Self-love begins with knowing yourself. ‘Who am I?’ sounds like a philosopher’s question, but to put it in a more difficult way, it is ‘self-identity’. ‘I am a child of God, whom God loves even to give his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.’ According to the text, ‘a man called by God to freedom’. Therefore, Jesus Christ, who died for me, dwells in us, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us. So, our body is the ‘temple of God’. In other words, Christian self-love is to sanctify oneself as the dwelling place of God, to be careful in all actions, and not to abuse one's body.
So, Christian self-love is to love the ‘temple of God’. Since God exists in the temple, we naturally love God. Those who love God follow God's guidance and do not follow the greed of the flesh, which is their exhausting love.
Why should you love yourself this way?
It is the same as verse 14. I don't even know how to love my own body, how can I love others as myself? How can I cherish the souls of others and share the gospel with them without knowing how precious my soul is? This fact is also attested by psychologists around the world. Psychology said, "There can be no love for others without loving yourself."
So, how do you actually love yourself?
To love yourself, you must learn to accept yourself as you are. One's appearance, knowledge, academic background, blood ties, abilities, wealth, faith, etc. You have to accept it as it is, without embellishment or hiding everything about you.
The reason people today suffer a lot from mental illness even though they live in a better environment than before is because of 'self-esteem'. I can't stand being worse off than others, and I can't stand what my children are worse off than other children. You have to have more culture than others, you have to live a better life, you have to wear better clothes, your children have to do better, you have to have something that others don’t have, and if you don’t have it, you have to pretend to exist and get debt. It is self-inflicted suffering because of 'desire'. Would you have said, 'Even if I drink cold water, my teeth hurt,' and 'If my cousin buys rice fields, my stomach hurts'? Therefore, in order to love yourself, you have to let go of useless ‘pride’ and ‘desire of the world’ and accept yourself as you are.
You must also acknowledge yourself in terms of your faith. Self-acknowledgment in terms of faith is divided into two parts. One is to know that you are a sinner before God. Because he has good faith, is holy, and pretends to be righteous, he cannot but suffer. We must admit our weakness and sinful disposition before God. That is why the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:30, “If I must boast, I will boast in my weakness.”
However, acknowledging that you are a sinner before God is different from 'guilty'. Guilt is feeling guilty and beating yourself up. But those who sincerely admit that they are sinners turn to Jesus Christ. Because I cannot come to God while I am a sinner. So, those who acknowledge themselves become humble and obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Judas Iscariot committed suicide by hanging himself because of the guilt he felt for selling Jesus, but Peter acknowledged the sin of betraying Jesus and repented. We know that their results are in the opposite direction.
The second step in acknowledging yourself in terms of faith is acknowledging that you are a child of God. That is, I know that although I am a sinner, I have been justified through Jesus Christ and become a child of God. Now that I am a child of God who will inherit the eternal kingdom, can I hate myself, mistreat my body, and defile myself? Can you always have a depressed face, annoyed tone, and a look of worry and anxieties? If you think about the glorious country given to you, even once a day, you will not be able to help but be happy. With this self-acceptance, you have to value yourself and treat everything that has been given to you.
So, how should we love our neighbor?
Neighbor love needs no further explanation. As we have seen so far, treat your neighbors as if you loved yourself. Let's look at Matthew 7:12, which we call the Golden Rule of the New Testament. “Therefore, in whatever way you would like others to do to you, do also to them. This is the law and the prophets.” According to this saying, treat your neighbors as if you love yourself, if you want to be recognized by your neighbors, admit them first, if you want to be forgiven, forgive first, and if you want help, you need to help first.
Now let's draw a conclusion.
You and I must certainly be insignificant, weak, and sinners before God. But our Lord bore the cross for us. And he has prepared for us the kingdom of God, the kingdom of eternal joy. Not only that, to guarantee this fact, he took care to have the Holy Spirit dwell in our bodies until we reach the kingdom of God. In this way, shouldn't I cherish and love myself, whom God values? Then, can't others love me and I can also love others?
Now let's spread this love to our heart's content. I pray that you will be able to leave a beautiful life with no regrets while loving yourself with the love you received from the Lord and loving the people you have given us as you love me.