John 13 (NIV)
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Self love is often perceived to be self serving, and contrary to the call of Our Father to love our neighbour, as we love our self, whereas without first loving our self, our love for others can never be understood as a reflection of our love for our self.
Self love is apparent in the lives of those of us whose self esteem creates life affirming values, enabling us to appreciate the many gifts that our creator grants us, to value the lives of those people with whom we share our life.
Self esteem reveals its reality in our life when we respect our self, that we may then understand our absolute need to respect others whose values may not be shared by us.
It is said that it is very easy to love those who love us, whereas our trials arise when attempting to love those who reject our love of them.
The importance of self love is apparent when understanding that the opposite of it is not the esteem of others, rather self-rejection, a characteristic of chronic unhappiness often manifested in the lives of those who are depressed.
The human person possesses dignity by virtue of divine generation. Though blemished by destructive, and self destructive choices human kind can regain its self-esteem through the process of spiritual renewal.
The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or - if they think there is not - at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.~ C. S. Lewis
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