The key to a wonderful life is losing self-love and finding true love. True love and true greatness go together. True greatness sets aside me-focus. It comes from obeying God’s two greatest commandments. The first one is to love the Lord with your all in all.

The second one is often misunderstood. It is to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39) Unfortunately, that commandment is frequently twisted to justify and proclaim self-love, self-focus, and self-exaltation. I believe that it means to love your neighbor instead of loving yourself–to shift your focus away from me-love to neighbor love. Love your neighbor as if he were you.

When you give up on trying to love yourself, you can find true love. Jesus taught self-denial (Mark 8:34) and humility (Luke 8:14) not me-love. He calls His followers to take the lowest place not the high places. (Luke 14:10-11)

In Philippians chapter two, the Bible tells us to: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” It goes on to tell us how Jesus humbled Himself from equality with God to death on the Cross. It says that we should have the mind of Christ and allow God to work inside of us to do His will instead of our own. That is self-denial, not self-love!

Me-Love?

Ego
Makes me go
The way
Of self-love.
However,
To humble
Myself
And shift
Away from
Self-focus
Is the way
To healing
And joy.