Defending Ourselves from Ourselves
Chris Seidman
Part of Flesh-And-Bone
August 6, 2023

Flesh-And-Bone

Defending Ourselves from Ourselves
August 6, 2023
Chris Seidman, Lead Minister, The Branch


John 14:5 (NIV)
“I am the way and the truth and the life.”


Mark 12:29-31 (NIV)
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”


Bernard of Clairvaux’s Four Loves

  • The love of self for self’s sake.

  • The love of God for self’s sake.

  • The love of God for God’s sake.

  • The love of self for God’s sake.


Leviticus 19:13-18 List of Commands

  • We’re not to judge our neighbor unjustly. (vs.15)
  • We’re not to slander our neighbor. (vs.16)
  • We’re not to hate our neighbor in our heart. (vs.17)
  • We’re not to bear a grudge against our neighbor. (vs.18)


Leviticus 19:18 (NIV)
“… love your neighbor as yourself.”


1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)
Love is patient, love is kind.


Romans 12:3 (NIV)
… Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment … .


Romans 8:1 (NIV)
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus … .


Psalm 103:2-4 (NIV)
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion … .

So What Can We Do if We Struggle with Self-Hatred or a Lack of Self-Compassion?

  • Look up and look at Jesus.


1 John 4:7-11; 19 (NIV)
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We love because he first loved us.


Micah 7:19 (NIV)
You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

  • Ask for the help of His Spirit to help us see ourselves through His eyes.


Ephesians 1:18-19
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

  • Let’s help each other watch how we talk about ourselves.