Quote:
Look at vs. 39 - YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
There seems to be a hidden premise in this statement:
All people love themselves or all people have self-love
|
IMO this premise is not necessarily in the text but rather read into it.
Another possible premise for the statement is;
Love your neighbor and yourself because God commands it/finds it pleasing/recieves glory through this Love.
The Command is to love our neighbor the same way we love ourselves, but it does not say the same way we instinctly love ourselves.
Certaintly there is a self-love that is idolatry, and I assume this is the inappropriate self-love mentioned. An appropriate self-love would then have to be found only in the love of ourselves as God's creature created in His image, and as a member of His eternal Covenant. This would logically be the case because we are commanded to Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength i.e. All of our love. All of Adam's offspring naturally create idols of themselves and the first great commandment totally destroys the idea that kind of self-love is good. The second is like it as it is about Love, but it is also like it because the love of self as well as thy neighbor should be because it is based in our Love for God.
I do not view this passage as much about the self preserverving love of self that is apparent in all beings, but the love of self that can only be understood by the regenerate heart of one in covenant with God. Our Love for ourselves that is based on who we are as God's creation, made in His image, and as His covenant people chosen out all those made in His image. This would also explain the bibles greater emphasis placed on our Love for fellow believers than those not under the covenant of Grace.