“The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” John 12:24-26
Could these words of our LORD be any clearer? Jesus was getting ready to do what He came for–die or be crucified for our sins and the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). He tells us here that in order to serve Him and His Father, one must be willing and obedient to follow Him by falling into the ground of His divine love and dying that He might raise that one up to bear much fruit. He says we must lose our lives to keep or gain it unto eternal life and that the Father honors such a true follower. With this truth in mind, how can we claim to be of God if don’t preach such a foundational and repeated message of the Savior we claim to be serving?
The life of the believer is to be one of death to self that Christ’s divine life might fill and reign in him and use him by this anointing to be fruitful to His glory and never to allow self-glory.
The self-life must be lost for a person to be found in Christ. This happens when we begin to love our Savior more than ourselves, obey Him, and cry out to Him to increase as we decrease (John 3:30). There can be no hold out. There can be no self-preservation. Without a clear and outright death to self and commending our spirit into the hands of the Almighty who loves us, there can be no resurrection to the life of Jesus.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
Those who argue to justify loving self, have not yet honestly and diligently studied God’s Word, and do not yet understand the life and mission of Jesus Christ. He came to die that we might have life, and instructed all who would truly be His to crucify the self-life that He might reign in us, and that others might have the blessing of eternal life.
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps . . . Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” 1 Peter 2:21; 4:1-2
The following excerpt is taken from the PyschoHeresy Awareness Letter:
“. . . . men shall be lovers of their own selves . . . .’
So, what do you think Jesus would say to pop singer Madonna? While former reporter and atheist, now assistant pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, Lee Strobel admits he’s ‘not pretending to have divine revelation from God on what Jesus would say,’ his book title, What Jesus Would Say, gives the impression he has a pretty good idea about what Jesus would say. But, we have to wonder what Jesus he’s talking about, because his Jesus sounds more like a pop-psych-pastor than God the Son.
Strobel’s Jesus identifies Madonna’s problem as a self-esteem issue. Self-esteem? That’s because it’s easier to get someone to come to church if you identify one’s problem as low self-esteem instead of sin. And, contrary to what so many pastors-turned-pop-psychologist such as Strobel would have you believe, the Bible says, ‘This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves . . .’ (2 Timothy 3:1, 2)” From PAL V3N2
Promise Keepers also promotes self-esteem and self-love. The following is from Promise Keepers Newsletter, Winter 1993:
“Many Christian single men have fought the battle to build their own self-worth, self-esteem, and self-love. They have learned that it is impossible to have a healthy relationship with others while having an unhealthy relationship with one’s self. Jesus recognized this when He challenged us to love our neighbor as we would love ourself (Mark 12:31).” PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries, (PAL V3N2)
In the doctrines of psychology man is taught to love himself but never to even acknowledge the LORD, much less love Him.
Jesus commanded:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
In their eagerness to embrace the psychological teachings of the world, Promise Keepers shifts the thrust of the verse and makes it sound as if we are commanded to love ourselves. But Jesus gave two commandments: to love God and to love one’s neighbor. Loving self was never given as a commandment, but rather the manner in which to follow the second commandment. In other words, loving self is the natural human propensity and all humans love themselves by nature. The very statement of Jesus is built on the fact that people already love themselves (see also Ephesians 5:28, 29). Jesus seems to be teaching those who will follow Him to take that innate self-love and pour it out on others.
Psychology is centered on man while the Bible is Christ-centered. Psychology is clearly antichrist because it puts man in place of Christ as the ruler and decision-maker of that man’s life. The teachings, philosophies, and notions taught through human psychology dethrone Jesus and replace Christ with man.
Christianity is about a loving relationship with the LORD and about loving one another. Christ did not teach His disciples to love themselves, but rather assumed that they already did when He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luke 10:27) The admonition here is that if we care for ourselves and want what is good for ourselves, likewise, we are to care for others and want what is good for them. We are to do to others as we would have them do to us if we were in their shoes.
The following is from the book Prophets of PsychoHeresy II regarding self-hatred:
“Now we are not saying that there are no individuals who genuinely think that they hate themselves. However, what they generally hate is something about themselves or their circumstances. They exhibit actual love for themselves in that they continue to spend most of their time concerned about themselves, even if it is with unhappy thoughts. They generally get to the point where they are unhappy about themselves because a discrepancy exists between their aspirations or desires and their performance or condition. This intensive hate is evidence of high self-interest.
The problem is always the self-focus with people who think they hate themselves or think they need to love themselves more.” Martin Bobgan, Prophets of PsychoHeresy II
In his book Life in the Spirit, Martyn Lloyd-Jones says:
“The real cause of failure, ultimately, in marriage is always self and the various manifestations of self. Of course that is the cause of trouble everywhere and in every realm. Self and selfishness are the greatest disrupting forces in the world. All the major problems confronting the world, whether you look at the matter from the standpoint of nations and statesmen, or from the standpoint of industry and social conditions, or from any other standpoint—all these troubles ultimately come back to self, to ‘my rights,’ to ‘what I want,’ and to ‘who is he?’ or ‘who is she?’ Self, with its horrid manifestations, always leads to trouble, because if two ‘selfs’ come into opposition there is bound to be a clash. Self always wants everything for it-self. That is true of myself, but it is equally true of yourself. You at once have two autonomous powers, each deriving from self, and a clash is inevitable. Such clashes occur at every level, from two people right up to great communities and empires and nations.
Self-esteem teachings distort the Bible, reflect the world, and appeal to the natural man. The Bible teaches believers to esteem others better than self, to love one another as we already love ourselves, and to deny self daily.” (PyschoHeresy Awareness Letter, V3N2)
Psychobabble is “Another Gospel”
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” 2 Corinthians 11:2-4
God’s Word is complete and reveals Christ in whom alone we are complete (Colossians 2:8-10). “ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness” are given to us in the “exceeding great and precious promises” of His holy Word (2 Peter 1:3-4).
To second guess or cast doubt on this biblical truth–that God’s Word is final authority and all that man needs for eternity and spirit, soul, and body–is to reject the LORD wholesale.
“It is written, That man shall not live (have spiritual and eternal life) by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4:4
All that man needs is revealed by our Creator in His Word which is “a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (Psalms 119:105) Searching out God in His Word is what people need and not to seek out a mere sinful man who calls himself a counselor while charging people money as he feigns to have the answers. Anyone who seeks God in His Word and with an earnest and repentant heart of faith toward God, will be delivered, blessed, and made whole by Jesus Christ. There is no other answer or solution.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
We are Complete in Jesus Christ!
The believer is complete only in Christ Jesus and He gave His Word exclusively to make that real and manifest in the lives of His saints. We are warned by His apostle Paul:
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:6-10
If the believer is complete in Christ, that clearly means that he is not complete in self. So, if the saints are complete in Christ, why would they seek some other philosophy that is foreign to the clear message of God’s Word? If we are properly abiding in Christ, we are not seeking anything else because we are “complete in him.” Anyone giving ear to psychology is not abiding in Christ but has rather received “another gospel.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4)
Beware of the “Experts”!
Professionals are a disaster both spiritually and financially.
“Professionals” are never the answer. Read and obey Psalms 1. Godly friends who love the LORD and His Word are who we need when there is a problem. There is no such thing as a paid counselor in the Bible. Repent! Most of them are devils, full of the psychobabble of Satan himself and that includes those who claim to be “Christian counselors.” It’s all man-centered humanism and luciferic (Isaiah 14:12-15). There are three things God left us to solve EVERY problem:
1) The divine Person of the Holy Ghost,
2) The written Word of God, the Bible, and
3) the body of Christ…. amen Jesus!
Read this again and memorize it!
To trust in any other philosophy or system of thinking, even if one is just mixing it with Scripture, is an open denial of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost who gave us the Bible for “ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness.” (2 Peter 1:3-4) God wants all of His beloved children to take the same delight and stand as David did – “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I HATE EVERY false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalms 119:104-105) The Psalmist also stated: “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I HATE EVERY FALSE WAY.” (Psalms 119:128) Those who choose to love God and therefore His holy Word, will hate any and all counterfeit philosophies as they recognize their contradiction to eternal truth (Ezekiel 44:23-24).
Overcoming and Transforming our Thinking
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Revelation 12:11
Speaking prophetically of overcomers, the Bible says that they “LOVED NOT” their own lives even unto their own death in this fleeting world system. If this isn’t a nail in the coffin of the self-love message, then what is it? Those who overcome will be those who “love not their lives unto the death.” This is the Bible. This is the opposite of learning to love self – “they loved NOT their lives unto the death.” This is God’s Word. Self-love is the antithesis of the message of the Gospel of our LORD. Only the overcomers are promised eternal life in Heaven, and only those who love not their own lives even unto death are overcomers and will be in Heaven (Revelation 2-3).
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1-2
Our thinking must be “transformed” so that we may be fully pleasing to the One we claim to be serving. He tells us here to present our bodies a “living sacrifice.” Nothing can be left alive – all must be laid down (sacrificed). The LORD desires that His “great power” and resurrection life would abide in His children and when it does, there will be “great grace.” (John 11:25; Acts 4:33; Romans 8:11)
Knowing God personally, living in the Spirit instead of the flesh, and devouring and obeying His Precepts, is the only safeguard against the deception and sinful desires of self-idolatry being taught by so many in leadership today in these apostate, Laodicean last days (John 17:3; Romans 8:29; Revelation 3:14-21). Jesus told us that the road was narrow and only a “few” will “Enter … in at the strait gate” that leads to eternal life–Heaven (Matthew 7:13-14). As foretold by the Son of God, so very “many” are being swept away in this tidal wave of self-indulgence and deception, designed to lead men to eternal perdition (Matthew 7:13-15).
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, . . . Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matthew 7:13-15
Any person who reads numerous scriptures without finding one verse in the Bible that teaches men to love themselves, and yet still argues to justify self-love, has been well trained under the tutelage of Satan’s emissaries who have sown their self-love lies deeply into the hearts of so many who think they are following the one Savior who taught contrary.
It is when we cry out to the LORD that He cleanses us, and then we have His love and joy in our hearts, and a sense of well-being as He desires. The true believer is made whole and complete in Jesus, who gave us in His Word “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” (Colossians. 2:9-10; 2 Peter 1:2-4)
Look here at the first 13 verses of Psalms 51 and note the progression. When the believer calls upon the LORD in repentance (because of his sins) for His mercy and the heart is cleansed, the joy of the LORD is restored and evangelism is one of the results. This is the fullness the LORD intends for us, rather than the sham and propping up of sinful, depraved self by some kind of self-love that He never intended.
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways (evangelize others); and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
The Savior will make us to “hear joy and gladness” and “restore” to us “the joy of” His “salvation” when we cease leaning to our own understanding and acknowledge Him in all our ways, doing things the way His Word clearly prescribes (Proverbs 3:5-6).
“Charity out of a pure heart” is the chief design of the Word of God (1 Timothy 1:5). He wants to first purge our hearts of self-love, as we fully trust Him (justifying faith) so that His love may fill us and be “spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 5:1, 5)
God promises to bless His people with all needs met as we seek Him first, placing Him as our Supreme Master as we go forth exalting His holy name and Gospel, and building up His holy saints (Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:19, etc.). Christ can only reign in the hearts of those who deny themselves. He can never reign in the cross-less heart that is full of the pride of self-love.
“I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is MORE blessed to GIVE than to receive.” Acts 20:35
The “MORE blessed” life is found in giving, not in taking honor unto ourselves. It is a futile endeavor to feed the self-life. Most importantly, it is utter disobedience to the LORD we claim to be serving. He is holy and commands us “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16)
Ready or not, Jesus Is coming.
PRAYER of Repentance: Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You by the blood of Jesus Christ and the divine grace which I do not deserve. I now repent of the sin of self-love and denounce such a lie and the disobedience which I have exercised myself in by ever espousing such. LORD, please forgive me for buying into this pride-based message. Deliver me now, Jesus! I love You alone and ask You to grant me a heart of pure love, as revealed in Your Holy Word–to serve You alone and others, elevating them above myself. I am this moment crucified with Christ — to live unto Jesus and not unto my selfish desires. By Your grace, I now go forth to love and to serve You my LORD, and Your saints, and those lost souls who need to be born again. Amen.
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