Good morning. It's not raining here and things are slowly drying up so it really is a good morning that God has given us. There are still a few questions from League Day which I would like to begin a discussion on. I am grouping a few of them together. Feel free to comment on anything I say.
1. Has the me-society which also becomes evident in the church make it harder to become attached to the church community? Love: God, others, yourself. What about the order: yourself, others, God? If you don't love yourself you cannot love others or God? Can we love our neighbour before loving ourselves? How can we love our neighbour if we cannot love ourselves?
To answer this question I looked to Don Matzat in his book "Christ-Esteem", where he writes, "While modern man wants to believe that he is good, worthwhile, valuable human being, he cannot escape the emptiness and meaninglessness of his own existence. In spite of all the self-help books and the media blitz attempting to convince him that he should feel good about himself and maintain a positive image of himself, our society is faced with an epidemic of drugs, alcohol, and suicide." When we put ourselves first and work to love ourselves it just can't happen, since we are broken sinners. It is only when we put God first and "open our eyes to the reality that, in addition to being our righteousness, Jesus Christ is also our identity, our life, our fulfillment, our pride, our hope, our peace, our joy, and our ultimate worth" (Matzat, p. 31). It is only through Christ/God that we can love ourselves, therefore the order has to be God, others, self as laid out in Mt 22:37.
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