LOVE SELF AND ALL

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1 John 2:7-10

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before.

 

Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

 

If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.

 

Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.

  

As we go closer to the end of the year, we are led to look more on love. It is God's nature and also His deciding factor:

 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

The opposite of love is hate, and it is a parasitic cankerworm that eats into its host.

 

Do you know that one can hate oneself, yes, just like the love we have for others are shown by our actions, our love for ourselves is shown by our actions and decision concerning ourselves.

 

Let's take an analogy: chastising a child is done out of love, to save the child from destruction:

 

Proverbs 13:24

Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. 

 

Those who love their children care enough to discipline them.

 

In the same way, if you love yourself, you will discipline yourself. You do not give self all that it desires knowing that some of those desires are destructive:

 

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors.

 

But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

 

The end of the writer above goes thus:

 

1 Kings 11:1-4

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites.

The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway.

He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.

In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been.

 

Truly you cannot allow flesh to take control, NO, you give the Spirit control!

 

Galatians 5:16

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

 

Yes.

 

Galatians 5:17-23

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,

idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,

envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

 

So, if I love myself I will not give way to the flesh, I will discipline myself that I will not self destruct.

 

One key help, us in reading and meditating on the word of God.

 

Just the way loving parents protect and discipline their children from wrong decisions. We protect our souls from the sinful lusts of the flesh. Help us Lord as we lean on Your Spirit.

 

So scripture says "love your neighbour as yourself . . ."

 

We will never lose love for it is our character as believers, and the very nature of our Heavenly Father.

 

So help us Good Lord.


PRAYER

Loving Father, love is Your nature, let it therefore fill me through and through that I may please You in all things. I surrender my life to You afresh that You may lead and guide me in Your pleasant ways. Glory to Your name Lord forevermore.


He calls us blessed.

 

Love

@the watcher

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