Grant, good job.  I don't worry about loving myself.  I love God and 
all else falls into place.

earlier, Grant E. Metcalf, wrote:
>First John 3:4 gives the Biblical definition of sin as follows: 
>"Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is 
>lawlessness." To say that in another way, sin is acting without any 
>restraint whether it is the rules laid down by dad and mom, human 
>government or God's Word.
>
>Satan rebelled by wanting to be like God, without restraint, and 
>that was "the lie" he used to convince Adam: "If you eat the 
>forbidden fruit you will be like God." Ever since he ate mankind has 
>been acting without restraint. See Romans 1:25: "For they exchanged 
>the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature 
>rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." In this 
>section of Romans, 1:18 through 3:20, is described all mankind and 
>their relationship to every kind of law from those chosen 
>selectively by an individual up to and including the Ten 
>Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount or if you will God's law. 
>And in 3:20 the section concludes that no man will ever be justified 
>or saved by keeping any law.
>
>How grateful I am for the grace of God which provides the way of 
>escape by faith in the good news declared by Paul in First 
>Corinthians 15:1-5a: "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel 
>which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you 
>stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word 
>which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain [to no 
>purpose]. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I 
>also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the 
>Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the 
>third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to [many]."
>
>Again, man would not choose to believe but for the grace of God as 
>related by Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 and 10.
>
>"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that [faith 
>is]not of yourselves, _it _is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of 
>works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, 
>created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared 
>beforehand so that we would walk in them." Did you notice that it is 
>God who gives us the faith to believe, created, or places, us in 
>Christ Jesus and then produces the good works as we allow Him to 
>work through us? "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness 
>to everyone who believes." (Romans 10:) WOW! Thank You, Lord!
>
>If I may, regarding the reference to "love", I would offer the 
>following comments.
>
>In Matthew 22:36-40 we read: "'Teacher, which is the great 
>commandment in the Law?' 37 And He said to him, ' "YOU SHALL LOVE 
>THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND 
>WITH ALL YOUR MIND."
>38 'This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 'The second is 
>like it, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 40 'On these 
>two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'"
>
>Notice that it is the Law and the Prophets that depend on these two 
>commandments. Christ was speaking to a Jewish lawyer during the time 
>He was offering the Millennial Kingdom to Israel which they 
>ultimately rejected. Later, in the Upper Room, just before His 
>Death, burial and resurrection, He made this statement to His 
>disciples in John 13:34-35. "A new commandment I give to you, that 
>you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love 
>one another. 35 "By this all men will know that you are My 
>disciples, if you have love for one another."
>In His first epistle John writes this in 4:10-11: "In this is love, 
>not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son _to _be 
>the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we 
>also ought to love one another."
>
>Now then, it seems to me that the standard for our loving has been 
>raised far above that given in the Law of Moses. We no longer are to 
>love our neighbor as we love ourselves but to love as Christ loved 
>us. That love is a self--sacrificial, other-centered love which 
>should be willing to lay down both our lives and also our living for 
>our brothers. We are not to live by trying to keep the Law because 
>as Paul discovered and points out in Romans 7, the Law provokes our 
>sinful nature, but it has no means of delivering us from its 
>influence. However, as Christians living in the dispensation of 
>grace we now have the indwelling Holy Spirit who produces His fruit 
>in us as we are in a proper relationship to God. "Therefore, since 
>you have been co-raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things! 
>above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your 
>mind [or reflective thinking] on the things! above, not on the 
>things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden 
>with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3) And back in Romans 8:2-4 we 
>read: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you 
>free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not 
>do, weak as it was through the flesh, God _did: sending His own Son 
>in the likeness of sinful flesh and _as _an _offering for sin, He 
>condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might 
>be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but 
>according to the Spirit."
>Galatians 5:16 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not 
>carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire 
>against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are 
>in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that 
>you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under a 
>Law. ... 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
>long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, 
>self-control; against such things there is no law."
>
>So then, mentally consider it to be true that you are dead to the 
>sinful nature and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (cp. Romans 
>6:11) This is a good place to begin so that the Holy Spirit can 
>produce His fruit in us.
>We cannot produce His fruit but we can, like the fireman with a hose 
>in his hand, direct it toward the appropriate object at the appropriate time.
>
>Listening for His shout!
>
>Grant

John