Narcissism:

excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance

selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for
admiration, as characterizing a personality type.
self-centeredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external
objects, either in very young babies or as a feature of mental disorder.
In comparison, let us look at the definition of narcissism in the Bible in 2
Timothy 3: 2-5:
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving,
slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong,
haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness
but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Yikes! And yet here the traits of narcissism in the Bible are clearly delineated.
The Bible is not naïve when it comes to human nature. For those of us who have
witnessed narcissism close up, this list does a very good job of describing a
narcissist. But in all honesty, the next verses really break my heart and convict
me as well. 2 Titus 3:

For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible
women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I tend to be gullible by nature. For many years, it never occurred to me that

people could be and often were quite wicked. Not until I saw the wickedness in my
own heart did I begin to discern the evil in others. Like the gullible women in
Titus, I blamed myself for my ex-husband’s abuse and studied the Bible, searching
out how to be a good wife. Yet I could not face the real truth. I, too, became a
bit narcissistic and worried about what a divorce might look like. As the Lord
began to set me free from my own pride and fear, I began to tell the truth to
myself about my husband.

The Old Testament gets in on the action, too. Proverbs 6: 16-19 says:
These six things the LORD hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil,

A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

I can’t help but notice that the first one listed is pride, the hallmark of the
narcissist. In both lists from the Old and New Testament, the lack of empathy is
striking. It takes a lack of love at a deep level to treat others in these ways.
The best description of the Ten Commandments that I have heard is as instructions
on having community. Narcissism is the polar opposite of community.
I suppose it all comes down to having a conscience. Many of us have a false
conscience. This means that we are far more afraid of Narcissism in the
Biblegetting caught or being perceived as being a bad person than we are of
actually doing evil or being a bad person. But a true conscience is grounded in
love and empathy. A true conscience understands that other people can hurt as much
as we do. Other people can be as devastated by cruelty or indifference as we are.
These descriptions of narcissism in the Bible speak to predatory behaviors. And
narcissists need victims to feed on. The genuine love that the victims of
narcissists express is the very food that a narcissist needs to survive. I suppose
I find it ironic that our culture is so fascinated by vampires. Vampires have
infiltrated our society already.

I will leave you with this tidbit from Proverbs 14:16:

A wise man fears and departs from evil,
But a fool rages and is self-confident.

Proverbs says a lot about fools, much of it pertinent to narcissists, but this one
seems especially apt. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then
self-confidence in its worst form, that of being convinced of our own rectitude is
dangerous. Praise God for His grace that keeps us mindful our frailty as well as
the gift of repentance.