According to Scripture, a healthy sense of self-love is rooted in recognizing one's worth as a beloved child of God. In Ephesians 5:29, it is noted that no one hates their own body, but rather nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. The Psalms also affirm human dignity, as seen in Psalms 139:14, which celebrates being fearfully and wonderfully made. However, 2 Timothy 3:1-5 warns against excessive self-love, which can lead to selfishness and a lack of love for others, emphasizing the importance of balance and prioritizing love for God and neighbor, as taught in Matthew 22:37-39 and exemplified in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
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Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.
But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good, traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.