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Self-Love


“But mark this: There will be terrible 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— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

A young woman told me once that she loved herself and that was a good thing. She did not like it for the Bible to have it listed as a bad thing.

How can we tell it is a bad thing? The other words in the list from 2 Timothy are characteristics of loving yourself. They are subsets of loving yourself. Let’s look at them.

  • Lovers of money – loving yourself
  • Boastful – loving yourself
  • Proud – loving yourself
  • Abusive – certainly not loving your neighbor as yourself
  • Disobedient to parents – loving yourself
  • Unholy – loving yourself
  • Without love (to others) – loving yourself
  • Unforgiving – loving yourself
  • Slanderous – not loving others as you love yourself
  • Without self-control – loving yourself
  • Brutal – not loving others as you love yourself
  • Not lovers of the good – loving yourself
  • Treacherous – not loving others as you love yourself
  • Rash – loving yourself
  • Conceited – loving yourself
  • Lovers of pleasure – loving yourself

In addition to this list, there are a few other words in the Bible that describe loving yourself.

·       Anger: almost all anger is based on loving yourself too much.

·       Bitterness is based on loving yourself too much.


This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

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