Does the Bible Say Love Yourself?

The Meaning of “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

Jesus said to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Now there are some who have taken that command to mean that you're supposed to love yourself. In fact, they'll say you can't love others unless you love yourself.

And you can't love if you don't love yourself.

The best way to understand this command is to look at the context by which it is originally given in Leviticus 19. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord. A few verses later, when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.

For you are strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. God says to his children, just as I have loved you as my own, so you love others as if they were your own, as if they were yourself.

Humility, Selfishness, and Loving Others

The Apostle Paul wrote, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. If you think that in order to do that, you first have to love yourself, well, that would be selfish, wouldn't it?

If you don't love yourself, it is impossible for you to love anyone else. It's just not possible. You know why? Because you can't give away what you don't have.

Well, if you don't have it, then how can you give it to yourself? Your worth is not in how you love yourself. It's in Christ who demonstrated his love on the cross, dying in our place for our sins. If you love God, you will love others, not with the selfish love of you, but the selfless love of Jesus.

Understanding the Text in Context

When we understand the text.