Self-Love: Don’t Buy Into It

“Believe in yourself,” “When there is doubt, trust the voice that is within,” “You can do anything you put your mind to.” “Do what YOU want to do,” “Don’t let others bring you down, do what YOU feel is right.” “You are the one that determines your own destiny.”

Looking back on my years in the American public school system, I saw how the previous statements and the indiscreet message they gave pervaded the entire curriculum from kindergarten on.  Most people, including many Christians, don’t have any qualms about accepting the above statements.  Humanism, excepted individualism and self-love are the foundations on which these trite philosophies are founded.  When examined closely, it becomes apparent the answer, the source, the ultimate good lies with the individual. 

Now, the education system has a goal of developing students into educated (and plausibly) ethically and morally better people.  Statements emphasizing trust in themselves (clearly) serve as guides which will lead students to be good people.  Believe  in yourself amid criticism from others and you will ultimately prevail in a just cause. ” Do what you want to do; don’t give in to negative peer pressure” as you begin using alcohol or drugs.  “YOU are the one who determines your own destiny: you have amazing and incredible potential inside yourself, of which only YOU can fully realize.”  Moreover, your individual worth is magnanimous.

The belief here is based on the premise that human nature is inherently good, virtuous and capable of unbounded possibilities.  The key for unlocking this door is YOU!  Moreover, everything external: every people and god are either indifferent (and therefore, make no difference) or pernicious (these must be shunned).  Interestingly enough, we see in the world today exactly the kind of people who are produced by adhering to self-love.  A quintessiental example are professional athletes today.  Year after year, we see them coming out of college demanding more money on their contracts and holding-out because the offer given by the team isn’t sufficient.  Obviously, they’re a better player than their predecessors and the individual worth, they possess demands more money.  Most teenagers and college students would agree with the statement that they determine their own destiny.  They’ve been drilled into believing this from childhood and their pursuits, morals, and desires increasingly display unhindered self-gratification. 

The increasing wickedness in our times has clearly demonstrated what truly lies inside the man and has vindicated the words of the Bible regarding the depravity of human nature. 

II Timothy 3:1-4 states:  “But mark this: There will be terrrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

God’s Word calls us to deny ourselves, to love others more than ourselves, to seek advice from others, to be humble and to fully comprehend that what happens in our lives is outside of our control.  Moreover, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ exemplified everything our natural selves failed to be.

Philippians 2:5:  “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in the very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!”

Proverbs 28:26 is strikingly clear on the position of self when it states: “He who trusts himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.”

As Christians we believe in man’s total and complete depravity, his sinful nature, the lust of the flesh and the deceitfulness of our hearts beyond repair.  That which is taught in school, on television, written in best-sellers on the bookshelves, is contrary to everything the Bible says about who we are.  Humanism projects man as possessing qualities and potential that can and should end in good.  But all the while, people who glorify themselves become precisely what 2 Timothy 3 states.  On the contrary, those who fully comprehend the depth of depravity inherent to all men, and understand that nothing good can come from them apart from a life transformed by Jesus.  Only these can do good with a pure heart and right motives.

As the world we live in increasingly encourages fulfillment of desires of our human nature, we must remember what the Word says about who we really are and the terrible results of a self-gratifying life.  There is undoubtedly a natural appeal to embrace our humanity, but we must not be deceived and lured into buying into self-exalting humanism whether from the media, the classroom, and even from “Christian” books.