Words of Love and Life

"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal." -John 12:25

phileó: to love
Original Word: φιλέω
Definition: I love (of friendship), regard with affection, cherish; I kiss.

miseó: to hate
Original Word: μισέω
Definition: I hate, detest, love less, esteem less.

psuché: breath, the soul
Original Word: ψυχή, ῆς, ἡ
Definition: (a) the vital breath, breath of life, (b) the human soul, (c) the soul as the seat of affections and will, (d) the self, (e) a human person, an individual.

"For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'" -Galatians 5:14

seautou: of (to, for) yourself
Original Word: σεαυτοῦ, ῆς, οῦ
Definition: of yourself.

-------
I hate my life in this world because I do not love my neighbor as I love myself. But if I hate my life, how can I love myself? And if I do not love myself, how can I love my neighbor likewise? Can I hate my life without hating myself?

It seems that self and life must be separated. My life cannot be my own. My self is all I am, along with the dross of sin and death. It is another life I am given to love, namely that of Christ, who also freely imparts His life to me and Who refines me with fire.

How can I know how to love my neighbor as myself when I cannot understand what loving myself really is, or means?

Actually, that is a love I know, because Christ Himself loves me in this way [yet the world for "love" when it comes to Christ Jesus is more commonly spoken of as "agape," a love that takes action.]

So then, it is not so much what I know, but Who knows me, and Who it is who works love in and through me by grace alone.

+ + +