Lord Jesus, what do You want to say to me about the way You love Yourself and the way You want me to love myself?
Today I want to talk to you about the Trinity. I told my disciples to baptize into a three-fold Name: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is what the name YHWH has always meant; that is what it is expanded. Those three.
Yes Lord, I have been wondering about that. It seems like it’s a little different for You to love Yourself than for me. When the Father loves the Son, isn’t He sorta loving Himself? But I’m only one person. I feel silly saying “I love you” when I am both the “I”and the “you.”
Yes dear, it is different, but it is also the same. That is why I want to talk to you not about how the Father loves the Son but about how Jesus the human responded to His Father’s love by agreeing with God and “loving Himself.” Jesus the human is always your model for how to be a human, because Jesus the human is humanity restored.
So I want to tell you a story about Jesus the Human. Once upon a time there was a Human named Jesus who was a 100% expert at Agreeing With God. He had a perfect score. He never disagreed with His Father, God, about anything. He didn’t think differently. He didn’t contradict. He didn’t oppose. He didn’t deviate. He didn’t pay lip service. He didn’t say He believed God and then on the inside believe something else, fooling others and maybe Himself too, as so many others did.
And as the little boy Jesus grew into the young man Jesus, He grew more and more astonished at all the people around Him who were Disagreeing with God. Every single person He met besides Himself had a level of Disagreeing With God going on in their hearts.
Some of them believed they were OK when God said they weren’t OK. Some of them believed they were OK because they had Abraham as their Father but they were actually going to hell for their sins. Some of them believed God could never forgive them when there was actually nothing God wanted to do more! Some of them believed they were impure or unclean because of something another human had said to them. Some of them believed they were pure and holy because another human had admired them. All of them were listening to so many voices besides God’s and worrying so much about what other humans thought and said and did, that some of them had forgotten all about God entirely.
Young Jesus the Human was horrified. He could see everyone’s level of Disagreement with God written on their heart like a thermometer was painted on their chest, and He could see how it was hurting them, killing them, and even damning them. And He felt so sad for them. He thought,
“If you really loved yourself, you would repent of your sins and run to God and get yourself out of hell. The most loving thing you could ever do for yourself is turn and believe, repent and come to Me. Then you would not perish. The most loving thing you can ever do for yourself is admit that you are a sinner and that you are in the wrong and that you need Me. It isn’t unloving to tell yourself the truth, even when–or especially when–the truth is that you are lost and on your way to hell. Nobody else can save you until and unless you admit that. I’m not asking you to flatter yourself when you love yourself, I’m asking you to tell yourself the truth that will save you and do what’s best for you: you DO have cancer and there IS a doctor who can save you–GO!”
In that way, the tax collector who beat his breast and said ‘God have pity on me, a sinner!’ loved himself better and more than the pharisee who praised himself for being better than other men. Because the tax collector got help for himself to save his soul, was humble enough to ask for mercy when he needed it, and the pharisee wasn’t.
Humility says to yourself, “I love you enough to get help for you, no matter how much it costs me.” Pride says to yourself, “I would rather see you go to hell than admit you could be wrong. You have to keep pretending to be perfect for me, no matter how much it hurts you.” Therefore, humility is the best kind of self-love and pride is the worst kind of self-hatred.”
The proud man hates and hurts himself, and the humble man loves himself well. The proud man puts himself in a position to receive resistance from God, and the humble man puts himself in a position to receive grace (James 4:6). Which would you rather receive from God, grace or resistance? If it’s grace, then humble yourself and admit you need help whenever you need it. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed (5:16).
As you read (in Humble Roots, by Hannah Anderson),
Because God is actively redeeming the world, we can experience the relief of confessing our brokenness–whether it is intentional sin, our natural limitations, or simply the weight of living under the curse. Humility teaches us to find rest in confession. Rest from the need to hide, the need to be perfect. We rest by saying, both to God and others, “I am not enough. I need help.”
If you love yourself, you will let yourself rest. That is the kind of self-love I want to teach you; I want to get you to the point where I can trust you to take good care of yourself, My beloved. Where I can trust you to get help for her whenever she needs it instead of forcing her to pretend to be perfect for you.
I will help you in every situation, but you have to cooperate with Me; we have to agree on the goal. The goal is not for you to look or be perfect. The goal is for you to get the help you need to thrive and flourish and serve Me, just the way you are.
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