A life of self-Denial, does that sound like the Christianity that is preached by in large today? Salvation is you being transformed, changed, made different, changed into a New creation. Have you?
The False Gospel: No Change in Affections
“Lovers of Their Own Selves”2 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 “Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” - II Timothy 3:2-5
The affections of the carnal professor of Christianity are all wrong. The Bible teaches that they are “lovers of their own selves, covetous... lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (II Tim 3:2,4). Now, where a man’s heart is, there his affection will be also (Matt 6:21); and where a man’s heart is not broken from the love of self, then his life is filled with all the other sins which we have described previously. God hates selfishness; and He delivers us from it as we’re given new life in Christ Jesus. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor 5:17).
A Life of Self-Denial
We want to focus now on this second aspect of wrong affections, that men are naturally “lovers of their own selves.” The Word of God calls us to a life of self denial, where our affections must be set “on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:2). Therefore, as our Lord was so much against selfishness, He warned His followers in the gospels many times about being lovers of self. We are to forsake our own way and our self-esteem (love of self). Now, as we go into these Scriptures, I will let you decide if a man whose life is controlled by this sin could possibly be a child of God. Or is he not rather a deceive soul-deceived by this false gospel of carnal Christianity?
In Luke 14:26 we hear our Lord giving us these startling words: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Yes, that’s startling, but these are the words of the eternal Son of God, and He cannot lie. In other words, He is saying, “In comparison for His love for Me, to follow Me in this present evil world, then it is as if a man hated his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters; and yea, his own life also.”
But brethren, this is not the only place where our Lord speaks along this line! Matthew 16:24,25: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” If I seek to save my life by not practicing self denial in the Christian faith, then I’m going to lose it all! Really, I have saved nothing, but have lost it all. But if I will lose my life for Christ’s sake, and will cease to be a lover of my own self more than a lover of God, then I will keep my life unto life eternal. Then again in John 12:25: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” All right, go on pampering your life, never becoming a self-denying one-doing what you think is best to satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life-then you will lose that life that you have sought to save and love; but “he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
You see, what our Lord is saying here in these Scriptures and in many others is that there is no place in His kingdom for “lovers of their own selves”-for His kingdom is made up of those who love Him supremely and deny themselves. Again, he that loves his life better than Christ shall lose it; but he that hates his life in this world, preferring the favor of God and an interest in Christ before his own life, shall keep it unto life eternal.
The Error in Love of Self
Further, we see in these Scriptures the total consequence of an inordinate love of life, and an inordinate love of self. You see, many a man hugs himself to death, and loses his life by over-loving it. He that so loves his animal life or passions as to indulge his appetite and make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof, shall thereby shorten his days and shall lose the life he is so fond of; he shall not inherit an infinitely better life, which is the one with Christ in glory after this death. He that is so much in love with the life of this body and the ornaments and delights of it, that for the fear of exposing it he would deny Christ, shall lose it; that is, he shall lose a real happiness in the other world, while he thinks to secure an imaginary one in this world.
This is what is so deadly wrong with this false gospel of carnal Christianity that produced this fruit of “lovers of self” or selfishness. It preaches that we are living in an enlightened age and that we are to love ourselves, money and pleasure, for “did not Christ come to give life, and that more abundantly? Are we not the `King’s kids’, and should not the King’s kids have the best in life?” Yes, our Lord did say He came to give life and that more abundantly (John 10:10), but remember, He came to give spiritual life to His people, which is life more abundant -not a life of abundance of material things that promotes the love of self, money and pleasure to the damnation of our souls! If this is the inclination of your heart, my friend, your affections are all wrong because of sin!
Follow me now! For I know the argument of the carnal professor who desires to stay in his sins and desires to make the best of both worlds. Matthew 22:39 says, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” And people take this and ask selfishly, “But doesn’t God tell us to love our neighbor as ourselves? And how can one love another unless he knows how to love himself?” Or, “For you know that unless a person learns to love himself properly, he will never learn to love his neighbor.” Don’t be fooled by all of this carnal reasoning, even though it sounds very plausible; the Scriptures do not teach this!
Our Lord’s command to love others as you love yourself merely assumes that you love yourself greatly, and that is the standard He applies to loving others. He is saying to take care of the needs of others as you take care of your own needs; and to look after someone else’s hurts the way you look after your own self when you are hurt! The reason men and women use this carnal reasoning and twist the words of our blessed Lord in Matthew 22:34-40 to teach something He did not say, is not that they may love their neighbor more, but that they may indulge in the things and pleasures of this life more. Face it fairly and squarely, get down to the root of it, and you’ll find that this is the motive, my friend. In this way one can indulge their fleshly appetites-their fleshly desires to embrace another man who is not their husband, or another woman who is not their wife; to forsake the responsibility of family, children and home, and live in a world in which they are the king or the queen! And they excuse themselves by saying, “Oh, but I must find myself; I must find my roots. I must have self-esteem, and I must...” Yes, they think they must have all of this, and they’ll go to hell with it, too! But the sad part about all this is, that they still believe they are saved! They still put on a form of godliness, while yet they live only for self!
Paul’s Example
Now let me give you a Scriptural example of a soul who lost his life for Christ and really saved it: It is illustrated in the life of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Christian, the child of God, the missionary. He said, “I had plenty of self-love and self esteem, and confidence in the flesh, but what things were gain to me [this self-love, self esteem and fleshly confidence], those I counted loss for Christ. Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things [my self-love, my self esteem, and my self confidence in the flesh] and do count them but dung [refuse] that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (paraphrased) (Phil 3:4-9).
Then again in Romans 7:9, the apostle said, “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died”-to my self-love, self esteem and self confidence. I saw myself to be nothing but a hell-worthy sinner, abiding under the just wrath of God. And my friend, the apostle carried this estimation of himself all through his life until he died. For even after his salvation he spoke of himself in this way: “I am the least of the apostles” (I Cor 15:9); “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given” (Eph 3:8); he styled himself the “ chief of sinners” (I Tim 1:15); and finally said, “I be nothing “ (II Cor 12:11). There’s no self-love here, no self esteem or self confidence, but here is one who had learned the lesson of the first beatitude very well: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”-I am nothing; I have nothing; I know nothing; and I can do nothing of myself-and that’s how the apostle came to see himself as he grew in the grace of God. So we see the truth of John 12:25 illustrated in Paul who was once Saul of Tarsus: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” Are you a lover of self more than a lover of God?
Personal Application
Are you high in your self esteem and your self-love and self confidence? If so, then self is your idol, and no idolater can enter the kingdom of God (I Cor 6:9); and we are to flee idolatry (I Cor 10:14). Further, true children of God “worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil 3:3). “Lovers of self more than lovers of God” is the fruit of this false gospel of carnal Christianity. Christ says: “He that does not deny self and follow Me cannot be My disciple.” The true Gospel of the grace of God says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and the man who is poor in spirit knows he is nothing, he has nothing, knows nothing, and can do nothing apart from the grace of God; therefore he does not love his life, but rather hates his life in this world that he may keep it, by the grace of God, unto the life to come!
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