Love yourself to death

Colossians 2:8
     Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

I was planning on discussing a few other topics that I've been mulling and meditating on.  Instead I decided to go with this one because it is currently a topic of discussion amongst a few brothers and I.  I've also posted it on facebook to get other people's opinions but none were satisfactory. 

The question:
     Does God command us anywhere in Scripture to love ourselves?  Is it a pre-requisite to love ourselves before we are capable of loving others?

Comments I've heard other Christians say:
"You need to learn to love yourself first."
"You get yourself right, then worry about others."
"God helps those that help themselves."

There are many things that get talked about in church and in our homes that we can disagree on.  Many times when talking with other brothers in the body, we run into things that we see differently on or have different views.  Pre/mid/post rapture for example.  We can have different opinions and it be okay.  For some reason the topic of loving ourselves has touched a nerve with me.  It seems that learning humility is kind of like a foundational concept.  I believe it is vital to have a proper view of youself when compared to God.

When I look at the entire council of God (systematically cover to cover), self-denial is pretty much yelled at us from the very beginning of the bible to the last page.  The Word is about the plan of salvation.  The story of love.  The revelation of Jesus Christ who told us that whoever loses his life will find it.  He told us about death and being born again.  He told us obedience in carrying our cross is what is best for us.  He told us there is no greater love than laying our life down for another.  He told us to not worry, to not complain, to do everything without grumbling, to esteem others, to encourage, to deny ourselves, to look to Him when we rise and sleep, to pray continually, that the poor in spirit are blessed, to have faith like a child, to not lean on our own understanding, to avoid philosophy and many words, to test everything, to show ourselves approved, to be above reproach, to accept discipline, to seek council, to write His words on our hearts, to seek Him and renew our minds....I can keep going.

My point is, where oh where does He ever say ANYTHING about loving ourselves????  From what I can tell, He goes to great lengths to tell us the opposite.  Anytime anyone did anything with selfish ambition, He squashed it.  He called them out.  He brought the truth in love challenging their motives.  Not even that, He was a servant to the point of death.  He came to die and rise again which is what he asks and promises us.

Philippians 2:5-8
     Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.


What is witnessing??  I believe witnessing is telling someone about the love of Christ and how it has changed your life.  How would it look after talking with someone for an hour about the gospel, the healing words of Christ, how it has transformed you from your old self to the new and how much He loves this person, to suddenly telling them "You gotta love yourself first though."
Would that not completely shift their line of thinking??  Isn't the tradition of men self-love? self-esteem.  Self-empowerment. Meeting your needs so that you're able to meet others?
Isn't talking about loving yourself kind of like anti-witnessing?  It's taking the focus off of the love of God and shifting it to an inward love.  "Don't look up, look inward."

It just blows my mind how Christians can think this way.  Am I missing something? 
The Scripture that says the greatest commandment is loving God and loving others as yourself does not mean you need to love yourself.  It's exposing how much you DO love your"self" and it should blow your mind that Christ is asking you to love others like that.  We are completely self-loving self-seeking individuals.  No one has to teach us to be selfish.  In fact, He had to expose us so that we could see things differently.  In no way do I think God would even HINT at commanding self-loving creatures to love themselves.  That is absolutely crazy.

a quote I heard and rememberd.  Can't remember source.
"Humility is not thinking lowly about yourself.  It's not thinking about yourself at all."