Self-Esteem (Part 3)

IX. The first characteristic of the perilous times of the last days is love of self. 2TI 3:1-5. A. The love of self is the basis of the other sins listed here. B. People who are driven by self-love will trample on whatever gets in the way of their own desires. C. The end (satisfaction of one's own desires) will justify the means. D. Consider how self-love relates to the other sins. 1. Covetousness is when you can't stand not having the possessions, looks or attainments that another has because you measure fullness of being by such things. 2. You boast to appear superior to others and gratify your desire for attention and fame. 3. Your pride is the stuff of self-love and self-esteem. Chances are that perceived low self-esteem is simply the product of the tension between what we or others think about ourselves and what our pride will not accept. 4. Men will blaspheme God because they deem Him less important than themselves and because He denies them their desires somehow. 5. Disobedience to parents is along the same lines: authority that gets in the way of personal interests 6. Unthankfulness is because you will not give credit to anyone but yourself for the things you deem valuable. 7. Unholiness is nothing less than the satisfying of oneself by sin. 8. Being without natural affection is because you value the satisfying of your own desires to the exclusion of any perceived obstacle to the same. 9. Trucebreakers deem that their current peace is worth less than getting what they want. 10. False accusers destroy others whom they perceive to be superior to themselves or who are getting in the way of their own desires. 11. Incontinence (lack of self-restraint, chiefly with reference to sexual appetite) needs no explanation. 12. The fierce man may react thus to the frustration of his will or desire, or use fierceness to obtain his will or desire. 13. Despising those who are good is owing to the fact that they make you look bad and you cannot stand it. 14. Traitors betray others when maintaining trust with them gets in the way of one's own desires or ideals. 15. The heady man (the man who is impetuous, headstrong, etc.) has no time for decorum or other's well being in the pursuit of his own goals. Self-Esteem 8-18-13 Page 6  16. The highminded man (one having or characterized by a haughty, proud, or arrogant spirit) loves his own perceived superiority over others and shows it. 17. Loving pleasures more than God needs no comment. It is the antithesis of the character of Jesus Christ. ROM 15:3. E. Self-love is NOT commanded in MAT 22:37-40. 1. This passage sets forth TWO commandments, not THREE. 2. Love originates with God not with self. 1JO 4:19. 3. The intensity with which God is to be loved is with the entire being. a. To love one's neighbor with this intensity would be idolatry. b. God must be loved MORE than oneself or one's neighbor. LUK 14:26. 4. Self-love is not the subject of the second commandment; it is the qualifier. a. The commandment assumes that men love themselves. b. Scripture in general assumes this. EPH 5:29. c. The love of self is as built-in to man as the involuntary acts of heartbeat and breathing. d. The second commandment is teaching us to direct the innate love we have for ourselves outward to others. 5. This passage actually condemns a love of self that exceeds love of God and disregards one's neighbor. 6. Loving my neighbor as myself means treating him as I would want him to treat me. LUK 6:31. 7. The love that Jesus commands looks beyond ourselves and is not limited by the personal benefit we may derive from it. LUK 6:32-34; JOH 15:12-13. Self-Esteem 8-18-13 Page 7