Does God Love himself?

The Problem: is God a Narcissist?

One of the most common reason atheists will give for not believing in God is that they think it is selfish for God to want people to worship him and give him glory.  This picture of God can even block theists from worshiping God.  So, is God a narcissist?

John Piper's Solution

John Piper has offered a very compelling explanation as to why God pursues his own glory.  Since God ought to be our greatest joy and since praise completes or is a natural overflow of joy, then when God loves himself he is really also loving us because he is promoting what is best in himself and this is what is best for us.  God wanting our praise is really for our own benefit. In his own words:

God is the one Being in the entire universe for whom self-centeredness, or the pursuit of his own glory, is the ultimately loving act. For him, self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things "for the praise of his glory," he preserves for us and offers to us, the only thing in the entire world, which can satisfy our longings. God is for us, and therefore has been, is now and always will be, first, for himself. I urge you not to resent the centrality of God in his own affections, but to experience it as the fountain of your everlasting joy.

Perhaps the reason we may still balk at this is that God is not really our greatest joy and that we liken God to all the other beings whose self-centeredness is generally a sign that they are not other-loving.

Trinitarian Solution

Another way of explaining God's self-love is to again claim that it is really other-oriented love, because God is trinitarian.  God wants glory because he loves the Son and the Spirit.  The Son wants glory because he loves the Father and the Spirit etc.  Interestingly enough, many models of the human is tripartite: Plato's soul (appetitive, rational, spirited), Freud's psychology (Id, Ego, Superego) etc.  Even the Bible often times uses a tripartite anthropology.  In Deuteronomy 6:4, we are told to love the Lord our God with heart (lebab), soul (nepes), and might (me'od) [LXX: kardia, psyche, dynamis].  Matthew 22:37 echoes Deuteronomy when Jesus expounds the greatest commandments (heart, soul, mind) [kardia, psyche, dianoia].  Mark has four (12:30): (heart [kardia], soul [psyche], mind [dianoia] and strength [ischys]).  Some scholars believe that Mark interpreted Jesus' one word using two Greek words 'soul' and 'mind'; evidence for this is that a few verses later (12:33) Jesus' interlocutor uses only three(!): heart (kardias), understanding (synesis) and strength (ischyos). Paul had spirit (pnuema), soul (psyche) and body (soma) [1 Thess. 5:23].  Be that as it may, probably not too much should be read into this tripart language because it may have been only for literary purposes and anyway the components are not necessarily persons. But this does provide an excellent segue for more than one reason.

The Human Nature Solution

The heart of this solution is to claim that self-love is a part of human nature, human beings are in God's image, therefore it is expected that God's nature also comprises self-love.

The Bible seems to take self-love for granted.  One of the most famous verses in the entire Bible shows this:  (Leviticus 19:18: you shall love our neighbor as yourself).  This verse is repeated many times in the New Testament: Mark 12:31, 33; Matthew 19:19; 22:39; Luke 10:27; Galatians 5:14; Romans 13:9; James 2:8.  Matthew 5:43 probably alludes to this verse but "as yourself" is omitted for a balance.  The last solution quoted the first great commandment and this solution quotes the second!  The Golden rule (Mt. 7:12//Lk. 6:31) also seems to take self-love for granted: do unto others as you would have done unto you.  Other verses in the New Testament also seem to evidence self love: Ephesians 5:28-29, 33 is a prime text.

Self-love is not commanded because I think it was taken for granted AND THAT self-love can be a detriment to other-oriented love (see Phil. 2:3, 2 Tim. 3:1-2 etc.).  But the point here is that self-love is a part of human nature.  If this is one aspect of human nature that is part of the image of God, then God is also self-loving.  If we love ourselves then we can understand that God would love himself.  There does seem to be a human tendency to want glory ("fame" or "good reputation" may be secular equivalents).  We all seem to want to be significant and appreciated.  God does too.  Also, it can't be denied that we all praise and give glory to things and persons other than God, which are far inferior to God.  

Conclusion

I've tried to argue that God wanting our praise is not selfish (in the bad sense).  Therefore, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him".  WOW, I just quoted John Piper (for the second time...in approval)!!!