Learning to love yourself is not the greatest love of all, but you wouldn’t know that if you ask non-trivial numbers of evangelical Christians:
“[God] has given us permission to love ourselves.”
— Alonda Tanner
“We can’t fully love God or anyone else unless we love
ourselves.”
— InTouch Ministries Daily Devotion
“It’s impossible to love your neighbor as you love yourself if you don’t know how to love
yourself.”
— Kristine Bolt
Each of these assertions depends on a linguistically-indefensible interpretation of a familiar statement made by the Lord Jesus.
