No Sacrifice, No Victory

The False Virtue of Self-Love

The world says, “be faithful to that which exists within yourself.” The Word of God says, “believe in Him who He has sent.”

The world says, “give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.” The Word of God says, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

The world says, “be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.” The Word of God says, “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

The world says, “how you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.” The Word of God says, “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

The world says, “to be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” The Word of God says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The world says, “it’s not selfish to love yourself and to make your happiness a priority.” The Word of God says, “people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant . . . avoid such people.”

The world says, “you have to love yourself to love others.” The Word of God says “we love because He first loved us.”

The world says, #LoveYourselfFirst #SelfLoveJourney #OwnYourStory #ChooseYourself. The Word of God says #LoveGod #IMustDecrease #It’sGod’sStory #ChooseSacrifice

Strongly Dislike Ourselves

In the verses we read today, Jesus declares that anyone who loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now, it’s worth noting that this language might be a little more aggressive than how it would have landed to the disciples. It’s possible that it was a Semitic idiom indicating preference. It is still challenging Christians to choose self-denial instead of self-adulation or self-glorification or self-praise or self-love, challenging us to reject the idolatrous love of self - but not necessarily going so far as to actively hate ourselves.

It is a call to live sacrificially for the Gospel and for the people around us. To be willing to give up our time, our dignity, our pride, our money, our image if it will benefit our neighbor and bring them closer to Christ. If we claim to be Christians, to be disciples, to be servants of God, we have to follow Christ and His example.

Fallen But Not Dead

And His example is that of the grain of wheat. It falls to the ground, and for someone just passing by it might look dead, like some waste left behind when the harvesters came through. In the winter, you can picture a small little grain against a stark, barren earth. Snow might cover it up, it might get blown around or buried, but in the spring that grain takes root. Before long you might see a little green shoot poking out of the ground - and no one would make the mistake of thinking it was a dead thing now.

It’s like the glorification the Christ is talking about. And it doesn’t look like glory as we might expect it, as the world might expect it. It looks like a cross on a barren hill, surrounded on either side by criminals. It looks like death, like a grain of wheat fallen to the ground. But after three days, the tomb was empty and God was glorified in the sacrifice that Jesus’ made for all mankind.

In Christ Alone

It is like someone who has bought into the self-love lies that the world around us tells so fervently. They think they’re supposed to love themselves and the body that they’re in, but every time they look in the mirror they aren’t satisfied with what they see. They might work out and buy the latest fashion products and the best skin care to try and make themselves worth loving, but the mirror tells them every time that they fall short. They think that they’re supposed to love themselves and who they are, but every time they have some quiet time to think they can’t help but reflect on how many mistakes they have made, on how many people they’ve hurt, on how many things they’ve done wrong. They might try to read the right books and do the self-help things, but they’re always just a short reflection away from knowing how much they fall short. They think that they’re supposed to love themselves and follow their dreams, but every time they do they fall short or the dream feels hollow and empty. They got the car and the house, they have the job and the prestige, their family looks great from the outside and their kids look really successful. But at the end of the day, they know that it is all less than it should be. Until one day, the person dies to themselves and stops focusing inward so much. They look in the mirror and see someone that Christ loves. They spend time in reflection and see someone that Christ forgives. They look around and live as Christ would have them live.

As long as we spend our time and our energy building ourselves up, we will keep falling short. But when we surrender ourselves, fall to the earth, and follow Christ’s example of sacrifice, there we will find peace and a reconciled relationship with God that promises us eternity. In Christ, we are loved. In Christ, we are forgiven. In Christ alone, we are enough. Amen.