Self-Love

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last
days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love,
unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God— having a form of
godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2
Timothy 3:1-5).

A young woman told me once that she loved herself and that
was a good thing. She did not like it for the Bible to have it listed as a bad
thing.

How can we tell it is a bad thing? The other words in the
list from 2 Timothy are characteristics of loving yourself. They are subsets
of loving yourself. Let’s look at them.

• Lovers of money – loving
  yourself
• Boastful – loving yourself
• Proud – loving yourself
• Abusive – certainly not
  loving your neighbor as yourself
• Disobedient to parents –
  loving yourself
• Unholy – loving yourself
• Without love (to others) –
  loving yourself
• Unforgiving – loving
  yourself
• Slanderous – not loving
  others as you love yourself
• Without self-control –
  loving yourself
• Brutal – not loving others
  as you love yourself
• Not lovers of the good –
  loving yourself
• Treacherous – not loving
  others as you love yourself
• Rash – loving yourself
• Conceited – loving
  yourself
• Lovers of pleasure –
  loving yourself

In addition to this list, there are a few other words in the
Bible that describe loving yourself.

·      
Anger: almost all anger is based on loving
yourself too much.

·      
Bitterness is based on loving yourself too much.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the To
the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,
please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.