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July 27 Daily Devotional

Self-Love

Frans Bakker

Charity ... doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own. —1 Corinthians 13:5

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 13:1–7

Devotional

This is what Paul says concerning charity, or love. In these few words we find the principles of the life of regeneration. There is much talk of love today and it is easy to describe in words what an ideal Christian should be. But what a great difference there is between words and deeds. When this love becomes reality in our lives, we begin to see how much we lack this love, and we will not merely talk about love. Not our words, but our lives will prove whether we experience something of this love.

“Charity seeketh not her own.” Love is not focused upon self and does not seek her own affairs. That does not mean to say that we may not seek our own wellbeing. If this were the case, then the psalmists would have prayed in vain when they asked God to deliver them in their need. Was Luther not allowed to ask the question: “How can I be saved?” Think of all those people who came with their needs to Christ. The Lord never turned any away who came to Him for healing. It is permitted to have a certain self-love found among us. Scripture tells us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. We may, therefore, love ourselves. When the Lord works, we do not become indifferent concerning ourselves. Let us be sober and let us not interpret these words of our text as if we may not desire anything for ourselves. The desire for self-preservation is in itself no sin. Let us then also not pretend that we are indifferent about ourselves, because that would only show that we are no longer ourselves.

Yet, what is contained in these words is enough to cause us to be shocked concerning ourselves, because when this self-love is separated from love to God and love to our neighbor, then it will not be true love. Then it is actually no love at all. Then we are seeking only our own good, and this is selfishness. Selfishness is the core of sin. Then it is even possible that pure, orthodox religion can be concealed selfishness and be nothing else than false love.

Is there not a lot of false love? Have you discovered this within yourself as well, a love that puts our own desires first? There is self-love that can do without God as long as we are given paradise; a love, that while our neighbor is being helped under the pretense of love, is still seeking itself. Think of the nine lepers. The fact that they came to Jesus begging for healing was no sin. Their sin was that they only sought their own self in this endeavor. Here we have a picture of each one of us, and this is our sin.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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