15 Short Bible Verses About Self-Love, Read in Their Context

The Bible never gives "love yourself" as a command of its own. The phrase it actually uses is two words long, "as yourself", and it first appears in Leviticus 19:18, tucked inside a law about not holding grudges. Jesus later quoted it as the second great commandment. Around 397, Augustine looked at that small phrase and decided no separate rule was needed, because people already love themselves. The real question, he thought, was how to do it well.

That is the question this page tries to answer. Below are 15 short verses that people reach for when they search for Bible verses about self-love. All are quoted word for word from the English Standard Version. Each one comes with who said it, to whom, and what the passage around it is doing, because a few popular "self-love verses" turn out to be about something else. The questions in the headings are the ones readers actually type.

Does the Bible tell you to love yourself?

Not as a separate instruction. It assumes you already do, and it uses that love as the measure for how you treat other people. Three passages show the pattern.

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

— Leviticus 19:18, English Standard Version

This is the first time the phrase appears. It sits in the Holiness Code, a run of laws about everyday fairness: paying workers on time, not cursing the deaf, not tripping the blind. The verse doesn't praise self-love. It points to the care you already give yourself and asks you to give the same to a neighbor you might be tempted to resent. If you put it on a card, keep the whole verse. The grudge clause is what gives it its edge.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

— Matthew 22:37–39, English Standard Version

Jesus is answering a lawyer who asked which commandment was greatest. He joins Deuteronomy 6:5 to Leviticus 19:18 and ranks them. The "as yourself" still assumes rather than commands. It is fair to say the verse takes some self-regard as normal. It is a stretch to say it orders you to love yourself before you can love anyone else. That popular reading isn't in the text. Mark 12:31 gives the same teaching in shorter form.

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.

— Ephesians 5:28–29, English Standard Version

Paul's letter to the Ephesians is talking about marriage here, but he does it by stating plainly what ordinary self-care looks like: you feed your body and look after it. "Nourishes and cherishes" is about as close as the New Testament gets to a positive description of self-love, and it describes care, not admiration. For the full marriage passage and how it is read at weddings, see our Bible verses about love and marriage.

CopyShareSave image

Augustine read these verses the same way. In Book I of On Christian Doctrine (begun around 397; James Shaw's 1887 translation), he lists four things to be loved: what is above us, ourselves, what is on a level with us, and what is beneath us. He says "no precepts need be given about the second and fourth of these," because "however far a man may fall away from the truth, he still continues to love himself." What people need, he adds, is "the due measure of loving," so that a person loves himself "so as to be of service to himself."

Where does the Bible say a person has worth?

If self-love means believing you are worth caring for, these five verses do most of the work. None of them says you earned it.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

— Genesis 1:27, English Standard Version

This is the Bible's first statement about what a human being is, made before anyone has done anything right or wrong. Christian and Jewish ethics have built human dignity on this one verse for centuries. Here "man" means humankind; the second half of the verse makes that clear. For a journal or a mirror note, the middle clause works on its own: "in the image of God he created him."

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

— Psalm 139:13–14, English Standard Version

Psalm 139 is headed "of David" and is a prayer about being completely known, the kind of knowing you can't escape from: "Where shall I go from your Spirit?" (v. 7). The "fearfully" means with awe, not with fear. An ESV footnote gives "fearfully set apart" as another possible reading. This is the most-searched verse on the topic, and it fits well. Notice that the praise goes to the maker, and the speaker's own sense of worth follows from that.

CopyShareSave image

What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

— Psalm 8:4–5, English Standard Version

The verse just before this one (v. 3) sets the scene: someone is looking up at the moon and the stars and feeling very small. The answer turns that smallness into honor. The ESV footnote says "heavenly beings" can also be read "God"; the Greek Septuagint has "angels", which is the wording older translations use. Hebrews 2:6–8 quotes this psalm. It is a good verse for a night when you feel insignificant.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

— Luke 12:6–7, English Standard Version

Jesus says this to his disciples while warning them about persecution, so the setting is fear, not vanity. The ESV footnote explains the coin: two assaria, each worth about a sixteenth of a day's wage. The joke is gentle: you are worth more than a bird sold for loose change. The line "you are of more value than many sparrows" fits on a small card and needs no explanation.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

— Ephesians 2:10, English Standard Version

You will often read that the Greek word here, poiēma, means "poem" or "masterpiece." That overstates it. The word means "a thing made," and the New Testament uses it only twice; the other time is Romans 1:20, about the created world. English "poem" does come from the same root, but the verse is about being made on purpose and for a purpose: the next words are "for good works." Read it that way and it is still a strong verse about worth that doesn't depend on how you feel.

Which verses help when you don't feel lovable?

Self-love lists often skip the prophets. Two of their oracles, spoken to a people in exile and disgrace, may be the gentlest lines in the Bible.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.' … Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.

— Isaiah 43:1, 4, English Standard Version

This part of Isaiah speaks to the exiles in Babylon, people who had lost their land and their temple and thought they had lost God's favor too. "Called you by name" makes it personal. "Precious… honored… I love you" gives three reasons for worth, and none of them is about what the listener did. Strictly, the "you" is the nation of Israel. Christians have long read it personally as well, and many people find it the most healing verse on this page.

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

— Zephaniah 3:17, English Standard Version

Zephaniah spends most of his short book on judgment, and then closes with this. God is pictured singing over his people, a sound most of us have only heard from a parent over a crib. "He will quiet you by his love" is a good line to write down for anyone who can't stop criticizing themselves.

Is it selfish to rest? Verses for the tired

For many readers, "self-love" just means permission to stop. The Bible gives that permission more often than you might expect.

And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

— Mark 6:31, English Standard Version

The apostles had just come back from their first mission, and Jesus's first instruction was to rest, not to report. Mark adds the detail that they hadn't even had time to eat. This verse quietly answers anyone who feels guilty for taking a break, since the break was his idea. It suits a card for a nurse, a new parent or a pastor.

CopyShareSave image

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

— 1 Peter 5:6–7, English Standard Version

Verse 7 is usually quoted alone, but in Greek it is one sentence with verse 6. Peter's point is that handing over your worries is a kind of humility, not a weakness. The letter was written to scattered, harassed Christians in Asia Minor. "He cares for you" is the reason given, and it is three words long.

Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.

— Proverbs 19:8, English Standard Version

This is the only verse here that says "loves his own soul" in so many words, and Proverbs means it as plain good sense: learning, listening and taking advice are ways of being kind to yourself. It is a good line for a graduation card or for anyone starting therapy, a course or a hard conversation.

Where does the Bible warn against self-love?

A fair page has to include this side. The New Testament knows a kind of self-love that goes bad, and it says so.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

— Romans 12:3, English Standard Version

Paul's rule is accuracy, not self-contempt. "Sober judgment" rules out arrogance, but it also rules out insisting that you are worthless, which is inaccurate in the other direction. The next verses move straight on to the body with many members, each with a different gift. That is a useful frame for anyone who measures themselves against other people.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy.

— 2 Timothy 3:1–2, English Standard Version

"Lovers of self" translates the Greek philautoi, and the word appears only here in the New Testament. Look at the company it keeps: love of money, pride, abuse. The vice Paul names here is self-love that leaves no room for anyone else. It is not the care described in Ephesians 5:29. If someone sends you this verse to prove that all self-care is sin, the verses above are the reply.

Verses that show up in self-love lists but are about something else

These verses are real and they are beautiful. But the lists that collect them often remove the setting that gives them their meaning. Here is what each passage is actually doing, so you can use them honestly.

Guarding the heart: four more verses on honest self-care

Four further ESV passages, carried over from a sister page on loving yourself, are about looking after the inner life without flattering it. Proverbs 4:23 says "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life", which suits a note to someone who gives constantly and has stopped checking their own reserves. Galatians 6:4 says "let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor"; verse 3 warns that anyone who thinks he is something when he is nothing deceives himself, so the "test" is a sober self-assessment that stops comparing you to your neighbour. In 1 Samuel 16:7 God corrects Samuel for judging by height and looks: "man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart", which is worth remembering if you measure yourself mainly by how you appear. Psalm 51:6, "Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart", asks for accuracy about yourself, and accuracy is not the same as cruelty.

One caution on a verse that often travels with these. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ("you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body") is used for self-care, but it reasons from belonging to God, not from self-esteem, so it supports looking after your body without backing the slogan that your body is yours to do with as you please.

How do I biblically love myself?

This is the question people ask most often in search. Taken together, the passages above suggest five habits. Each one comes from a verse, not from a wellness trend.

• Look after the body you have. Feed it, rest it, take it to the doctor (Ephesians 5:29; Mark 6:31). None of that is vanity.
• Tell the truth about yourself in both directions. Don't inflate and don't erase (Romans 12:3). When your inner voice says "worthless," answer with Luke 12:7.
• Put the weight down. Name the worry, out loud or on paper, and hand it over (1 Peter 5:7).
• Keep learning. Proverbs counts getting wisdom as loving your own soul (19:8).
• Let it spill outward. The test of healthy self-love is whether your neighbor gets the same care (Leviticus 19:18), which is exactly what 2 Timothy 3:2's "lovers of self" fail to do.

If self-criticism has turned into something heavier, such as persistent hopelessness or thoughts of self-harm, please don't rely on a verse alone. Talk to a pastor you trust and to a licensed counselor. In the US you can call or text 988 at any hour.

Picking one verse for a card, a journal or a mirror note

Our editors wrote three short notes to show how a verse can sit inside a message without sounding like a sermon. Fill in the brackets yourself:

• "[Name], you've been holding everyone up for months. Mark 6:31 says 'rest a while,' and it was Jesus who said it. Take the weekend."
• "On the days you feel invisible: 'you are of more value than many sparrows.' I'd add: more value than you think, too."
• "For your mirror: 'I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' Read it before you read your messages."

If you want a single word instead of a whole verse, our one-word self-love quotes trace each word back to the line it comes from.

Catholic readers: the same verses, and what Aquinas added

People often search for "Catholic Bible verses about self-love." Every verse on this page is also in Catholic Bibles; only the wording changes from translation to translation (the NABRE, for example, has "I praise you, because I am wonderfully made" at Psalm 139:14). The Catholic tradition adds a careful theology on top. Augustine's "due measure of loving" is quoted above. Thomas Aquinas asked directly "whether man ought to love himself out of charity" (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 25, a. 4) and answered yes. Because friendship implies union, he wrote, "properly speaking, a man is not a friend to himself, but something more than a friend" (English Dominican translation, 1920). In article 7 of the same question he separates two kinds of self-love. One is "proper to the good," who value the "inward man." The other is "proper to the wicked," who put the "outward man" first. That is close to the distinction drawn above between Ephesians 5 and 2 Timothy 3. For verses about loving other people well, see Bible verses about love and unity.

Short answers

Is self-love a sin according to the Bible?

No, not in the sense of caring for yourself. Ephesians 5:29 treats nourishing your own body as normal, and Leviticus 19:18 uses self-regard as the measure of neighbor-love. What the Bible condemns is the self-absorbed "lovers of self" of 2 Timothy 3:2, who appear in the same list as lovers of money, the proud and the abusive.

What is the shortest Bible verse about self-love?

Of the verses above, the shortest stand-alone line is Psalm 139:14a, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." If you want the one verse that literally says "loves his own soul," it is Proverbs 19:8.

Which translation does this page use?

The English Standard Version, checked word for word against the ESV text on BibleGateway. Footnote readings mentioned above (Psalm 8:5, Psalm 139:14, Luke 12:6) are the ESV's own footnotes. The NABRE wording in the Catholic section is shown only for comparison.

Augustine thought the commandment never had to tell anyone to love themselves. It only had to show them how. Proverbs puts the same idea in one line: "whoever gets sense loves his own soul." Choose one verse from this page, write it out by hand, and put it where you'll see it tomorrow morning.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.