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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 26, Issue 9
Healthy Homes & Families Natural, Biblical, Healthy Living Should I Love Myself? By Chris
fall, thinking a beauty and honor greater than that of God Himself to be something attainable. Adam and eve idolized self in the garden, thinking their wisdom to be greater than that given to them by God. And here we are again today...in the midst of a culture that puts a pretty package on a whole list of “self” phrases...gently steering us, as is Satan’s way, away from the true God; coaxing us to look away from our Creator and His perfect plan to love Him and to love others; and wooing us to think of ourselves and affirm our own plans for our mornings, our days, and our lives. The self-love agenda, friends, comes straight from the bowels of hell. I say this not to hurt anyone’s feelings or to cause anyone to feel badly about themselves; but hopefully to rescue a few who have wandered off on this wide and broad path that leads to destruction. Like most things that Satan sends our way, this message doesn’t ride in on a big red demon; but rather, subtly maneuvers its way into our thinking. There it finds a comfortable place to rest in a partial truth that we hold onto, or a seemingly inno- cent lie that we don’t realize we are be- lieving. When I say that self-love is an agenda from the bowels of hell what do I mean? The bowels in ancient times and in bib- lical times were considered to be the place where emotions lived. The bowels of hell are Satan’s emotions and Satan’s desires. What does he desire? He de- sires that we would love ourselves. Why? Because when we love ourselves it is in direct competition to the call of love that God has on our life. God most certainly calls us to love, but the heart of God is for us to love him and to love others.
When you turn from the deceptive path of self love to the plumb line of God’s Truth; I think you will find that there is a love much greater than self-love to be at- tained; and also that self-love is not a first step to achieving this greater love. If you asked the world to define the op- posite of self-love, you might hear self- hate or self-condemnation. If these
know that loving others is not an easy or risk-free task. It is bound to be hard and hurtful and tiresome. The reason that God can command us because He has given us His very love to share with others. He is quite simply asking us to give away a resource, precious in its character, that He gave to us to be given away. It is not a love of ourselves that we must first have in order to love others, but a love of God. And this love is also a gift from God to us. We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19 New In- ternational Version). It is the love God gives us – how He views us – that is truly a resource that can be poured out lib- erally to all those “others” around us. We are able to love others because God first gives us a real love with which to love them. At the core of who I am is a person who was created to be loved by God and also to love God and love others. So we go back to the question we started with - “Should I love myself?” The Bible doesn’t directly answer this question, although it speaks volumes on what love is, where it comes from, and who we should love. Why doesn’t the Bible tell us explicitly to love ourselves? Perhaps because God knew that loving ourselves comes very naturally to each of us. We don’t need to be challenged or reminded to care for our own needs. Biblically it should not be the primary thing we are pursuing. The Bible doesn’t say that we shouldn’t care for ourselves; however, it does say that we should look to the interests of others and to those of Christ. (Phillipians 2:3-4 New Inter- national Version). “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above your- selves, not looking to your own interests
but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Phillipians 2:21 New Inter- national Version). For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. We should not love ourselves more than we love others or love God. Now let’s go back to the quote from Alana Ar- vanitis “Self-Love is the act of putting your own happiness and well-being first, something that is lacking within our cur- rent society.” This quote may sound like an innocent encouragement for some- one to simply make more “me time'” in their life. But Brothers and Sisters, is this not in direct conflict with the mandates we just read in Scripture? To put the happiness and well-being of others be- fore my own? To put the interests of Christ before my own? It is not wrong to make time for myself, to look after my own needs and desires, or even to love myself; unless doing those things keeps me from first and foremost loving God and loving others. (2 Timothy 3:1-2a New International Version), “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves...” So what shall we say in response to this, friends? (Matthew 22:37-39 New International Version) Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Simple, selfless, others-focused; and God-empowered. Now let’s get out there and love someone...someone be- sides ourselves!
M c M a h a n F e b r u a r y 2026 Self care; self af- firmation; self con- fidence; self love. At first glance, these phrases seem to be positive, good; something to be focused on and attained. Our culture has certainly presented them enough to us that they sound fa- miliar and comfortable. There is a self- love movement going on in our culture right now that unabashedly promotes its agenda. The self love movement claims that their agenda must be promoted be- cause there is a lack of self love in our society today (www.theself-lovemove- ment.com). “Self-Love is the act of put- ting your own happiness and well-being first, something that is lacking within our current society.” — Alana Arvanitis (the- self-lovemovement.com). Friends, I don’t think we really need to look very far to realize the lack of truth in this statement — Facebook, Instagram, the “selfie” — all these give ample ev- idence that we are lovers of ourselves to a much greater degree than any prior generation. What about these phrases? Self loath- ing; self pity; self mutilation; selfishness; self-centeredness. Our gut reaction to these phrases is much different. We recognize something negative and uncomfortable in each of these phrases. And yet, in both lists of phrases there is a great commonality... self. The idol of self has fought to be god in our lives since before our lives were ours to live. Satan idolized himself before his
mindsets truly lay in opposition to the love of self, then it would be a travesty to abort our self-love agendas, risking a turn toward an even unhealthier agenda. However, if we ask God what the oppo- site of self love is; He will tell us...love of others. It is not the word “love” in self love that needs to go, but rather the word “self.” The opposite of self is others. Therefore, the opposite of loving self is loving others. Now again I go to God’s definition and His Word on this subject. Loving others is a command to those who call them- selves Believers. (Matthew 22:37-39). How can our loving God command such a difficult thing? For we certainly all
Chris McMahan Email: Happy1970@icloud.com
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross By Ray LeBlanc February 2026
opposition by the established, orthodox churches and his songs were banned by many — labelled unortho- dox, heretical. Yet, they managed to survive and some 320 years later, we still sing the songs Dr. Isaac Watts penned under candlelight so long ago. A song mentioned in the heading, “When I survey the wondrous cross,” another well known one, “Joy to the world,” and “We’re marching onwards to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion.” Isaac, as I mentioned, was a very sickly man, scarred deeply for life. He became so ill at times he would be bedridden for weeks at a time, prone con- stantly to fevers, depression and weakness of the body, yet with such a powerful and brilliant mind. In retrospect, as we examine Dr. Isaac Watts’ life, I see a man deeply afflicted in body, yet his soul and mind to- ward God was rich beyond measure. His love toward God surpassed anything this physical realm threw at him. While laying in bed staring at the ceiling, his body racked with pain, he pleaded with God to remove this thorn — pleading for healing but it never came. That’s when he received a revelation that his suffering was not a hindrance to his worship, but it was the fuel that in- spired him. During that moment, he was again inspired to write a song. He turned to Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The words poured out of him as his pen met paper he wrote this worship song, we still sing today! “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride, where the whole realm of nature mine that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Colossians 3:16 encourages be- lievers to speak to one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs mak- ing melody in their hearts unto the Lord. But first there must be a songwriter. Let me introduce you to
one. Dr. Isaac Watts (1706 A.D.) Isaac was a very extraor- dinary man, born and raised in England. As a boy, he learned Latin at 4, Greek at 9, French at 11 and He- brew at 13. Brilliant mind, but as he grew, plagued with sickness, smallpox leaving his face scarred, frail and sickly all his adult life, small in stature barely 5’. His one shot at marriage was his love for a poetess, Elisabeth Singer, but she rejected him, saying “I love your soul, but I cannot live with your face.” Even though he was rejected and alone, his relationship with God was very strong. His father Isaac Watts Sr. was a preacher, a man of conviction, impris- oned for refusing to compromise his faith. Young Isaac grew up knowing that faith wasn’t a hobby, it was a fire, it was dan- gerous, it cost you something. At 18, young Isaac was discouraged with the way his father’s congregation sang from only the psalms, as they sang them without heart, without rhythm, without joy. It was a dry, dusty murmur that felt more like a funeral dirge than a celebration of the King of kings! The tradition of the day was that only the EXACT WORDS of Scripture could be sung; to write a human hymn was considered blasphemy. Isaac com- plained to his father — he declared “singing God’s praise is the part of worship most closely related to heaven. But its performance among us is the worst on earth.” His father shot back, perhaps just as frustrated, and said, “well give us something better then, young man.”
Young Isaac took up that challenge and went to his room, his heart pounding. He didn’t just want to write a poem, he wanted to revolutionize the way God’s people spoke to their Creator. As he sat there pondering, the words began to flow from his quilled pen and under the candlelight, he wrote his first hymn. At the next service, his father allowed him to pres- ent his work. The congregation stood, a little skeptical they had never sung human words before. His first song written: “Behold, the glories of the Lamb amidst His Father’s throne.” As the people began to sing, something happened. The dust cleared, the air shifted, and for the first time they weren’t just reciting, they were worshiping, they were seeing Jesus the Lamb, high and lifted up. Joy filled the room, the people were ecstatic, they cried out for more, and that is exactly what he gave them. Isaac wrote a new hymn every week for the next two years. He ended up writing over 700 powerful songs, hymns of in- spiration, shaking the early foundation of the Church. As I mentioned earlier, this type of human words sung in the church was considered blasphemy. It was met with much
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