Take a look at Mark 12 and let me give you some background…. In this chapter Jesus is speaking in parables as both the Pharisees and the Sadducees ask him questions; they were trying to trick Him.  Then a scribe asks an honest question of Jesus…  Take a look at Mark 12:28-34.  His question is about categorizing the commandments, to which Jesus responded that the greatest commandment is to love God.  Not just like God, but to LOVE Him.  In the Greek that word is Agapao and it means to wish well, to take pleasure in, long for, actively doing what the Lord prefers with Him and by His power.  It involves action on our part – a choice.  Look at verse 30:

 

 

We are to love God with all of our understanding (not just head knowledge), all of our heart (our innermost self), our soul (feelings, emotions, passions, desires) and our strength (our power, forcefulness).  This does NOT mean paying attention to formalities, rituals, or an outward show, but to simply fall in love with the Father.  

 

Go back and look at the hierarchy in verse 31.   The scribe only asked for one great commandment, but he got two, well really a two-part answer, so it must be very important.   Verse 31 reads:

 

 

By the way the word love here is the same in the Greek as it is in verse 30.  So, what’s that hierarchy? 

Loving self comes before loving neighbor because Jesus said to love our neighbors AS ourselves.  But wait, we must love God first – we have to fall deeply and passionately in love with Him before we know what love is.  And, we can’t separate ourselves and our neighbors out from the commandment because this love is an extension of loving God. 

 

Okay, let’s pause on the scribe and Jesus’ conversation for a minute and find out what love is.

 

Look at 1 John 4:8:

 

 

Love is the very nature of God Himself.  He IS love.  In my bible I have written the word God where the word love is and vice versa.  Now, let’s keep going…. Look at 1 John 4:18:

 

 

So… perfect love casts out fear and God is love, then the more His love becomes in our hearts and in our minds the less we will be affected by fear. 

 

One more – look at John 1:1:

 

 

So not only is God love, but He is also the Word (because of the Trinity).  Look at it this way: God is love, love casts our fear, so let the Word tell me what to do and think.

 

Now, back to the scribe… If we are supposed to love our neighbors, which is the outward manifestation, or the visible expression, of our love of God, then how can we do that before we love God or ourselves? Do we love God – yes, I think we do.  Do we love ourselves? …..  hmm…

 

We may want certain things for ourselves like food, a home, happiness, clothes, and even for our lives to count, but often-times we base our self-worth on physical features, education, tragic circumstances, and sin, amongst other things.  When we base our self-worth on such worldly things it can lead to pride and a false sense of trust in earthly things or just the opposite: a sense of being devalued.  These negative feelings become thoughts that appear regularly in the screen of our minds and they often even creep out of our mouths as words.  They can start to enslave us. So, what do we do? How do we break the cycle?  First of all, we have to stop judging ourselves and others, stop comparing ourselves to others, get out of sin and let the past be the past.  We must stop listening to the voice. This voice is the father of lies, and he can’t get in us if we don’t give him access (Ephesians 6:12).  We have to know who our enemy is, and the enemy is not the scale, a person, or the sin we are ‘attracted’ to.  The enemy is Satan himself. 

 

Our self-esteem/self-worth should come from who we are in Christ – our right relationship with God.  WE ARE VALUABLE.  We learn that He looks at our hearts like in 1 Samuel when David was chosen as the king. We are precious to Him (Isaiah 43:4).  If Satan can attach to our self-views, then he hinders our love for our neighbors, our service, and our ministry. 

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are new – we are fresh, we get a do over.  We are accepted, not because we are the best, or because we have this or that.  We are new because of what JESUS did for us.  So, it’s time to start focusing on what God has done and how He sees us and stop comparing ourselves to anyone else. 

 

Our self-esteem/self worth should come from who we are in Christ- our right relationship with God.  WE ARE VALUABLE.  We learn that He looks at our hearts like in 1 Samuel when David was chosen as the king. We are precious to Him (Isaiah 43:4).  If Satan can attach to our self-views then he hinders our love for God, our love for ourselves, and our love for our neighbors, our service and our ministry. 

 

Many times, our self-view is broken, and we don’t love ourselves.  Heck, we may not even like ourselves.  But, Jesus wants to use our brokenness to magnify Him; He is not afraid of our brokenness.  And, it is not our job to carry any cross or jump through hoops.  It is our job to have an understanding of who we are in Christ and command our mouths to line up with that understanding.  The world won’t have this understanding and will only confuse us, however the Word – the source has the understanding.   And, thank goodness we don’t have to clean up our act before God will accept us.  Just think about the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery.  Their sin was not excused or ignored, instead forgiveness was offered. We have to get over the broken feelings and start believing the Truths in the Word of God!   We have to realize that we were made FOR Him and BY Him (Colossians 1:16), and that it is our job to look in the mirror and start to see the transformation that He has for us (2 Corinthians 3:18).  He wants to use us, he wants us to love Him so much that we see ourselves as valuable as He sees us and then we can help our neighbors.    

 

How do we start becoming more of Christ and loving ourselves?  We have to take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Those thoughts that tell us we are bad or not worth enough.  How do I stop the bad girl voice? 

 

Marian Jordan says taking our thoughts captive and stopping the voice looks like this: