REALISTIC SELF-VIEW

KEY VERSES: ¹¹ For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted... ²⁶ If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:11,26-27)

  Jesus’s words were giving His listeners the proper perspective about themselves. What seems odd is that Jesus seemed to say that children should detest their own family. Many words have different values in various contexts. For instance, the word “judge” extends all the way from merely having an objective opinion to condemnation. The Greek word translated “hatred” is one of those. It extends from love less to despise (Strong’s Dictionary). Of course, children must never despise their families because the Fifth Commandment is to honor father and mother. In context, therefore, children must love families less than Jesus, and furthermore, must love themselves less than Jesus.
  Self-love is a given. It is the standard for loving others. Examine that claim:

³⁶ Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40)

  First off, love is imperative. It is the whole Law. The Satanist slogan is, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” (Aleister Crowley). That slogan is included for a comparison. The key word is “wilt” and that means to do what is right in your own eyes without judgment. That is the cardinal and original sin of mankind; Adam did what he willed to do rather than what God willed. Satanism is trivializing God.
  Christianity is doing what Jesus wills for us to do, and what is that? Love God with our very being, and that is the whole Law. That contrasts with Satanists encouragement to love oneself as the whole law.
  If loving God with our entire existence is God’s Will, then how can we love others? Divine love is demonstrated by loving others, even enemies.
  What is Divine love? Desiring that “none should perish” (John 3:16). What must we desire? That none, not even our enemies, should perish. Do sane people want that for themselves? Truly so! Loving others, since we desire not to perish, is desiring that they not.
  The metric for loving God is with the intensity that we love ourselves and that is attitudinal, spiritual, and cognitively. We should esteem God as we esteem ourselves. Self-esteem is a given and is mankind’s problem. Christ-esteem is the ideal and is the solution to our problem.
  Do people have self-love? “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it…” (Ephes 5:29a). Everyone esteems themselves. But what about those who feel poorly when they look in the mirror? “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).
  Loving the things of the world is wrong. “Life” is our existence in the world. Those who cherish the flesh shall lose it; it shall indeed perish. If someone hates this life in the world, they shall never perish. The goal, then, is to love ourselves less than we love God, and certainly to love the things of the world less than the prize in the Kingdom of God!
  Likewise, Jesus expects His disciples to love family less than Him. Not despise the family, but honor and love them, but less than we love Him. It is a given; everyone loves themselves. We must love others that intensely. Don’t confuse disappointment in the world with hating oneself. I submit that even those who commit suicide don not hate themselves but despise their condition and relationships in the world.
  Ironically, even those who can no longer care that they exist still want to live forever. Why do most depressed Christians who are suicidal not kill themselves? Because they desire never to perish.
  Ironically, everyone loves themselves so intensely that they want to live forever; not necessarily here in tribulation, but in bliss elsewhere. That’s how much we love ourselves. We must love others to that extent.
  If we love God with our entirety, how is that demonstrated? “Bear His cross, and come after Me,” as Jesus said. How is that done? By crucifying our own flesh as is written, “They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal 5:24). We are to die vicariously. Jesus made our own crucifixion easy. God experienced death wholly: His Flesh died, His Spirit suffered along with the Flesh, and His Mind agonized over the loss of His own Flesh and Blood. We need not do that; only our flesh must be sacrificed as we, “bear His cross.”
  What must we hang on the Holy Cross? Our affections and lusts — the things that we desire and what we covet — “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). We need not kill our souls, but our flesh must vicariously die. How is that done? With changes in attitudes and desires. A new countenance emerges. The old person is buried, and the new person arises and becomes like Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Christians seem to miss the transformation half of rebirth!
  The change in countenance is rewarded: Those who exalt themselves (esteem themselves too highly) shall be diminished, and those who humble themselves shall be exalted. With that done, the meek, not the exalted one, will be blessed with eternal life (Mat 5:5).
  Since we are own problem, then truth about that must be realized. We must repent for being human because we all have sinned (Rom 3:23). “Sin” is essentially desiring TO BE our own gods as Satan very well knew (Gen 3:5). All want to be as gods and do what they will to do. Alleister Crowley understood scripture very well? Why do Christians not understand? Because if we deny the truth about ourselves, we can go on pretending to be gods.
 Gods work miracles. God’s generate substances from nothing. God’s create time and space. God’s heal and repair. Rebirth is coming to understand that we are not gods, cannot control our own destinies, but the Almighty God can! (John 3). When we come to realize that, then that is the first step in picking up the Cross of Jesus. Christians depend on Jesus’s death for our eternal life. Anything short of that is US doing the works. Christians understand that all their good works are for naught if there is not love. Loving God seems ambiguous, but is easy. It is honoring God for Creating, Preserving, and for the promise of Re-creating His disciples entirely at the General Resurrection.

(Picture credit: Doug Lawrence - WordPress.com)