Masterpiece

When Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," he embedded an important principle. How are we to love each other, if we first do not love ourselves? If you're like me, you've been taught that the love of self is wrong, and I agree with the main idea. However, I believe there is a difference between loving yourself and idolizing yourself.

Idolizing yourself comes from having your sense of worth rooted in your accomplishments or the acceptance of others. Unfortunately, neither our accomplishments nor the acceptance of others have any lasting effect on the way we behave toward our neighbors.

Clarke's Commentary on The Bible says this about Matthew 19:19 - 


"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself - Self-love, as it is generally called, has been grievously declaimed against, even by religious people, as a most pernicious and dreadful evil. But they have not understood the subject on which they spoke. They have denominated that intense propensity which unregenerate men feel to gratify their carnal appetites and vicious passions, self-love; whereas it might be more properly termed self-hatred or self-murder. If I am to love my neighbor as myself and this "love worketh no ill to its neighbor," then self-love, in the sense in which our Lord uses it, is something excellent. It is properly a disposition essential to our nature, and inseparable from our being, by which we desire to be happy, by which we seek the happiness we have not, and rejoice in it when we possess it. In a word, it is a uniform wish of the soul to avoid all evil, and to enjoy all good. Therefore, he who is wholly governed by self-love, properly and Scripturally speaking, will devote his whole soul to God, and earnestly and constantly seek all his peace, happiness, and salvation in the enjoyment of God. But self-love cannot make me happy. I am only the subject which receives the happiness, but am not the object that constitutes this happiness; for it is that object, properly speaking, that I love, and love not only for its own sake, but also for the sake of the happiness which I enjoy through it. "No man," saith the apostle, "ever hated his own flesh." But he that sinneth against God wrongeth his own soul, both of present and eternal salvation, and is so far from being governed by self-love that he is the implacable enemy of his best and dearest interests in both worlds."


Something I have observed time and again is that people are searching for significance. By biblically loving yourself, you are recognizing that your worth is rooted in God's perfect and unchanging love for you. In His eyes, you are a masterpiece. None of us are in our truest form yet, but that's the beauty of the whole principle. If our belief in His love is true, we will project His love onto our neighbors, for they too are masterpieces.

So love is simply being a good steward of what God has created...you and others.

I think that part of my role as a singer/songwriter and teacher/counselor is to help people change the way they think about God and themselves. If you believe that you are a masterpiece, then you no longer have a need to search for significance. The search is over! You are a masterpiece...significant and priceless! Now go share the good news of His love and mercy with all the world!

This song has been insightful for me, and I pray that it finds its way to the ears of many people who need it's message.

Masterpiece

Oh Father, be near me when I’m separated,
Remind me that I’m no longer an orphan,
Gracefully and wonderfully I was created
I will never be forgotten

Pre-Chorus:
I’m letting go of what I thought I wanted to be
Help me see myself the way that you see me
I will always love you, my debt of sin you paid
I’m learning how to love the one you made…

Chorus:
You love me Almighty-mighty, you made me, you made me a masterpiece
You love me Almighty-mighty, you made me, you made me a masterpiece

Verse:
Oh Father, be near me when I’m frustrated!
Remind me that we are your children
Love is why we were created
We all need to be forgiven

Pre-Chorus:
I’m letting go of what I thought I wanted to be
Help me see myself the way that you see me
I will always love you, my debt of sin you paid
I’m learning how to love the one you made…

Chorus

Bridge:
I can’t love my neighbor if I can’t love myself
When I feel like I’m damaged goods just left on the shelf.
Blow the dust away from a heart that is hurting
Remind me of how much you love me