by Terry Featherstone

Created on: February 21, 2010   Last Updated: February 23, 2010

Surprisingly for those steeped in current Western culture, the command of Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself” is not an invitation to consider ways to build our self esteem, the better to love our neighbor. An undisputed principle of Bible study is that we must endeavor to understand the author's intent within context to comprehend God's message for us. When we read the Bible, we must carefully guard against interpreting Scripture in light of our own culture. Culture is man-made and grounded in the world, but we are not of the world (John 17:16). We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).

Renewing our minds necessarily involves evaluating the ideas we have accumulated and internalized over the years. Each thought must come under the Lordship of Jesus, every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). No thought is exempt. The process may compel the abandonment of cherished opinions. Currently, Western culture exalts self esteem as a virtue to be pursued. Our education system promotes activities expressly designed to build self esteem. Self help books routinely advise taking control of one's life.

*The Second Greatest Commandment

The Bible almost diametrically opposes the worldview of our culture and society. Scripture, far from supporting self esteem as a valuable virtue, warns that self esteem is perilously close to pride. In fact, it may be argued that a modern synonym for self esteem is ego, and a Biblical synonym for ego is “the old man.”

The command to love your neighbor as yourself is not difficult to understand. The command starts from the pre-regenerate condition of our lives. We do love ourselves, take care of ourselves, expend most of our energy meeting our own needs and desires. Loving others as ourselves means taking care of others and meeting their needs with the same diligence and determination we apply to ourselves.

Construing the second greatest commandment as an invitation to build our self esteem misses the point entirely. Strangely, we feel good about ourselves just by broaching the subject. Today, the idea that self esteem is necessary for the self love related to loving our neighbor is taken for granted. It is a kind of self deception. “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3). Jesus said that we are the light of the world. The world walks in darkness. We must reject the darkness of the world as it is espressed within

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