"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves. . . ." (2 Timothy 3:1-2)
TODAY'S WORD , when Jesus told His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23), He was telling them (and us) that if we try to save our lives, we will lose them. But if we lose our lives for His sake, we will find them. It means that we must deny ourselves.
Of course, this goes against the pervading philosophy of today. After all, we need self-love, we are told. We need to realize our self-worth. We need a better self-image and more self-esteem.
In short, we are a self-obsessed culture. Yet according to the Bible, our problem is not low self-esteem or a poor self-image. The problem is that we are too preoccupied with ourselves. The Bible does not teach that we should love ourselves. Rather, the Bible teaches that we do love ourselves.
In fact, the Bible says this will be one of the characteristics of the last days: "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God . . . " (2 Timothy 3:2-4). These things are the outgrowth of loving ourselves rather than loving God.
Jesus did not say that we need to love ourselves. We already do that well. He was saying, "I want you to love Me more than yourself. I want you to love Me more than anyone and anything else." This is what Jesus asked of His disciples. And this is what He asks of us.
A PRAYER FOR YOU TODAY Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on my weakness, and mercifully give me those things which for my unworthiness I dare not, and for my blindness I cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen. |
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