Day 3: The Day Self-Love First Got Ugly

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?

Genesis says the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. That means they felt comfortable in their own skins. They liked each other, but they also liked themselves. They felt clean and pure, just the way they were. They were OK with their similarities and their differences. They were not critical of themselves or of each other. Their thoughts about their own bodies were not critical. They agreed with Me and were happy with what I had made. They praised Me for creating themselves just the same as they praised Me for creating each other and all the animals and rocks and birds and everything else. There was no double standard of love, acceptance, or praise.

When they realize they are naked, when they feel guilt, shame, and fear because of their sin, when they try to cover themselves and hide from Me, it shows that all of this has been lost. They can no longer come running to Me yelling, “I AM VERY GOOD!” in innocent joy and pleasure. They’ve lost that. Something is terribly wrong. They’re starting to feel like you feel now, the way all humans have felt since then, the way you are familiar with.

The first emergence of the ugly form of self-love is when Adam tries to blame Eve and Eve probably would have, if she could, have blamed Adam. This is wrong because now they are trying to throw each other under the bus, to escape My wrath and anger and the judgment that is coming by blaming one another. Now for the first time they are not loving their neighbor as themselves. Now for the first time they are loving their neighbor less and themselves more, wanting the wrath of God to fall on their neighbor not themselves. They are saying, “If somebody has to die, I hope it’s you not me!”

This is where self-love, for the first time, can get ugly. That ugly selfishness will continue corrupting humanity throughout history until it is reversed, at last, by Jesus. For Jesus said the opposite when He died for you on the cross: “I want the wrath of God to fall on Me rather than you. If somebody has to die, I hope it can be Me not you!” In His love for both Me and for you, He would someday reverse the evil form of self-love that started here.