It’s almost like some Christians think hating yourself is a sign of godliness and honestly that makes no sense. Why would God want his creation to hate itself? lol or even think harshly of itself? Imagine an artist creating a painting and the painting was like, yeah this is awful. The disrespect! Like, yeah no.
This episode of Confidently She goes into the ways self love is misapplied and interpreted in culture, especially regarding women. When you’re Christian, the real truth of it is that loving who you are is loving God’s creation. It’s a posture towards him more than towards you. It’s a reverence and respect for what he made in you and a responsibility to steward that well.
Loving yourself isn’t even about you
Loving yourself is a heart posture that’s required to encourage your spiritual growth and further edification. So the idea that it’s vanity to love and enjoy God’s creation (you) is ridiculous. The focus on this posture is the Creator, not his creation. No one would scold you for exclaiming the beauty of the mountains or the sunset. So let’s not scold women for appreciating the beauty of God’s creation through them.
Additionally, loving who God made me also means continuing to shape myself into his image. It’s knowing and accepting the job continues with me. We cannot fall into self indulgence and use “love” as an excuse to allow our own impatience, anger, or lack of self control to flourish.
Worldly love v. God love
People who apply worldly love to the relationship with themselves are the ones struggling with this concept. You must apply biblical love, a definition we get from God. Yes, the one that goes “love is patient” etc.
This is a common mistake I see Christians make. They take a worldly definitions and apply them to Godly circumstances, laws, and structures. Those do not fit together. I have more thoughts on this topic I’ll cover in another post.