Thread: Self Love?
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Old 04-03-2008, 08:57 AM
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Semper Fidelis Semper Fidelis is offline.
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No, I don't think it holds water.

The love for self is not something that needs to be developed according to the Scriptures. It's quite natural for us to focus inward, to care for our bodies, to look out for ourselves, to literally obsess about ourselves.

I don't know how you derived c1 from p1 and p2. There is no logical connection between the premises and the conclusion. The loving of yourself is in reference to how we love our neighbors.

The reason for the Law is because we are naturally bent inward. Paul, later in Romans, talks about the fact that love does no harm to a neighbor. The reason we harm our neighbor is always selfish self-interest. The fact that we don't love God with all our heart, soul, and mind is because we're too focused upon ourselves. Too obsessed with ourselves.

The solution isn't to learn how to better look within but to more properly look outside of ourselves.

Even our view of what we're redeemed for is profoundly outward focused. I was just criticizing last night the "Jesus is my Boyfriend" view that pictures our relationship with Jesus as this weeping fellow outside the door of our hearts that is pleading with us that He won't be able to live in eternity without us. If we would just let Him in then not only we would be complete but then He would find the joy of His heart.

In contrast, our redemption is to be seen as God glorifying Himself in the redemption of a people that the Father brings to the Son, who are converted and perfected by the Holy Spirit, to be presented spotless to the Bridegroom, that He might, in turn, give back to the Father in an expression of a profound intra-Trinitarian Love. Love is explicitly God-focused and even the fact that God is Love is expressed in the sending of His Son and not in the fact that He teaches us to love ourselves.
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