Is Self-Love Bad?

Jesus drives a pickup truck with a bumper sticker, “HONK IF YOU LOVE YOURSELF”.

IS SELF-LOVE BAD?

We’re talking about all kinds of love leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Because love isn’t just reserved for a man and a woman that must lead to a traditional marriage and family.

Recently when I talked about the necessity of self-love, someone challenged my heresy by demanding I show even one verse to support my claim.

Even though I don’t need to defend self-love, I did descend to his level and said, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, which suggests that love begins with you.

If you have any self-awareness or any psychology education at all you know that if you don’t love yourself you will struggle to love others.

Because love loves.
Love is indiscriminate.

But the church doesn’t typically nurture self-love.

If you were told you were sinful from birth, that your heart was desperately wicked, that your mind was deceitful, and that you were going to Hell by default, you have no defense.

You: “But I don’t feel that evil. I think I’m a pretty good person.”

Them: “That just proves you’re proud AND deceived!”

What if the concept of original sin was invented as an attempt to describe why the world sometimes feels broken and as an attempt to explain why humanity seems to suffer so?

When you love yourself, you really are going against the religious pressure that keeps you doubting and even hating yourself, which in turn makes you perpetually submissive, needy, and constantly in need of restoration that is only bestowed by those in authority over you.

Loving yourself is revolutionary.