When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus gave two. He said the first is loving God with our whole being and the second is loving our neighbor, "as we love ourselves." This proverb directly address the 2nd, which cannot be accomplished without the first.
Withholding good, delaying payment, devising evil against our neighbor and "striving without a cause" are all actions that are taken when we do not love our neighbor. Doing any (or all) of these things puts us at odds with the Father, with peole and even with ourselves. When Jesus added "as we love ourselves," He indicated a very deep truth. We can only do for others what we already have within ourselves.
Doing evil against another is rooted in the evil we really feel we deserve for ourselves. For me, the best one word definition of love is acceptance. For a Christian, loving ourselves is not accepting who we have always been but accepting who we are in Christ - a new creation, recreated in the image of Christ Himself. So, fulfilling this proverb and Jesus statement is really about us and how we accept ourselves, not about others.
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