How the Love of Christ Delivers Us from the Deadly Disease of Self-Love
God is love (1 Jn 4:8), and the Beatles were wrong that love is all there is — at least their brand of love. The Bible judges that men are lovers of self (2 Tim 3:2). God is not like men. The reason God is not a narcissist is the Trinity. The eternal Godhead is made up of three divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God dwells in a community of perfect love. The Father loves the Son and the Spirit, and likewise with the Others loving one Another.
Man has fallen from grace (Gen 3), and that includes love, for most people. Humanity, severed from God, is a disaster (Total Depravity). Love, man’s version, is a distortion of selfish quests for self-gratification. Me, me, me is the triune trance of sinners driven toward self-satisfaction. When self-focused sinners decide it is in their best interest to incorporate the notion of the divine, they assure themselves, “God must love me as much as I love me.” Man-centered theology supports this idea, “I am going to decide to let God love me.” Self-love is a powerful delusion like that, and it can only lead to a loveless eternity. Self-love is a deadly disease.
When God reveals true love to His people (1 Jn 4:19), He shows them Christ on the cross, crucified, as a demonstration of God’s love for His beloved elect found in every nation around the world and across time (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8; Eph 1:4–5; Rev 5:9). In order for us to be delivered from self-love, we must see Jesus.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as our focal point for understanding love, is bizarre foolishness to the world of self-lovers (1 Cor 1:23). True love self-sacrifices, instead of self-fulfills. Christ died for the ungodly, elect, while we were yet sinners, infatuated with ourselves (Rom 5:6). He gave Himself in the place of His prized possession, not that we were desirable in any way, yclept enemies of God, adulteress idolaters (1 Pet 3:18). That is what makes God’s love amazing. There is no greater love than Christ laying down His life on behalf of His grossly disobedient sheep (Jn 10:11, 14–15; 15:13).
When God’s people are delivered from the vanity of self-obsession, we self-abase in humility. Listen to the child of God rightly self-deprecate, “How could He love a wretch like me? Why?” In humility, as vessels being emptied of self-enthrallment, the objects of Christ’s love are made to be new creatures (2 Cor 5:17). All things, including love, become new. Christ’s love is powerfully expunging self-love, without any help from self.
With God’s love in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), the beloved of God taste the Trinitarian love of the Godhead, through His indwelling Spirit (Rom 8:9, 11). There is joy in serving others, while denying self. Suffering loss for the sake of God’s elect (2 Tim 2:10) becomes each day’s labor. Lost wages embitter self-lovers, but they are glad sacrifices, by those who wish to see others prosper at one’s own expense. Denying oneself, and taking up one’s cross of suffering, is the way of joy set before us (Mt 16:24).
There may be some false idea that one can control Christ and His love, but we can be assured that Christ’s love constrains us (2 Cor 5:14). When Christ’s love controls us, He is living His life in us (Gal 2:20), and we are delivered from the ravages of self-love. There is no seven-step process, in Christ occupying His people with His love. This is a divine work from beginning to end. His love never fails to accomplish His purposes (1 Cor 13:8). It finds no reason to boast, for that would be a regress into self-love. The beloved only wish to speak of the excellencies of the One who loved them (Song of Solomon).
The experience of deliverance from fake love to real love is a life-long process for the beloved, but that is the beauty of the name, “beloved.” We love because He first loved us (1 Jn 4:19). The more Christ we have, by taking in His Word, His love letter to His people, the more of His love is manifested in and through us (Dt 33:3; Rom 5:5).
The Spirit of God, who is love, works in our hearts, guiding us to walk in love (Eph 5:2), and this is the path of suffering and self-sacrifice. It is following Jesus, who gave His life, in love for His brethren in need (1 Jn 3:16). Do you see your brother or sister in need? Your neighbor? Your enemy? Witness the love of Christ, as he opens your heart to love with the love of God, in giving His all, so that others might know what free love (Hos 14:4), God’s love, is in reality, and that they might be delivered from glitz to serve, not themselves, but others with everlasting love (Dt 10:12; 11:13; Gal 5:13).
God delivers us from self-love because He loves us, and that is true love.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
September 14, 2021
