February 7, 2024

Some years ago, I played basketball at the Y with a guy who just was not a fun guy to be around. He always had an edge about him. He was grumpy. He complained. He often yelled at the other guys who would end up on his team. He frequently ended up in shouting matches over stupid stuff. He was just not a nice person to be around. As a play on words because of his last name, guys called him “The Brat.” Since I played a lot of ball back then, I was around him a good bit. One day, when I was trying to figure out why he was the way he was, it hit me. He doesn’t like himself. He talked to himself as harshly as he talked to the guys around him. He would call himself “stupid” when he made a bad play or cuss at himself when he missed a shot. His anger toward all of us around him was just a reflection of his anger toward himself. He didn’t like who he was. Therefore, he didn’t expect anyone else to like him. And he did everything in his power to fulfill that expectation.
When Jesus affirms the “Love your neighbor as yourself,” part of our passage, there’s a dual meaning to it. One, you need to make a concerted effort to love the people around you—even the difficult ones. Two, you are to love yourself. My guess is that many of us struggle with that more than we’d care to admit. Some of us struggle loving ourselves because along the way we’ve been told that we weren’t worthy of love. We feel unwanted, unnoticed, or undesirable. Others of us struggle to love ourselves because of past failures we have a hard time forgiving ourselves for. Still others struggle because we feel as if we can’t live up to standards that have been put on us, especially when we compare ourselves to other people. Many may not realize it, but when you don’t love yourself, it prohibits you from loving others—at least in a healthy and mutually edifying way.
For those of you who struggle with self-love, let me share some things you need to know. You are created in the image of God; therefore, you are BEAUTIFUL! You are unique and different, unlike anyone else in the whole world. That makes you PRECIOUS! Your sins, every single one of them, have been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. That makes you FORGIVEN and JUSTIFIED—just as if you had never sinned! Forget what those around you have thought of you. You are fully loved and adored by the Only One whose opinion ultimately counts: God Himself. Love what God loves. And that would be YOU! That’s God’s Word for you today.