Biblical Teaching on Self

Biblical Counsel for a Change — Steve Gregg

Next in this series

Counsel of God (Part 1)

00:00

Biblical Teaching on Self

Biblical Counsel for a ChangeSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg explores the biblical teachings on self-worth and self-image from a Christian perspective. He challenges the notion that high self-esteem and self-love are necessary for a fulfilling Christian life, arguing that such concepts cater to a self-centered attitude that needs to be repented of. Gregg emphasizes the importance of placing Christ at the center of one's identity and evaluating oneself in light of God's standards, rather than seeking validation from worldly success or personal achievements. He introduces the idea that embracing selflessness and prioritizing the interests of others leads to true joy and fulfillment in the Christian faith.

Transcript

In our last lecture we talked about self, image, and of course it came as no surprise to any of you, I'm sure, to learn that there are many Christians who say the same things that worldly psychologists have been saying for, oh, approximately a century now, since the time of William James, that people need to learn to love themselves, people need to have high self-esteem, that people need to have a good self-image, have self-worth, a healthy view of their self-worth, and so forth. These are the things that are all the rage in modern psychological thinking, and unfortunately to say that something is all the rage in modern psychological thinking is a little bit of a stretch. Unfortunately, it usually means it's also all the rage in certain Christian circles which are quickly desirous to obtain insight from outside the Bible, from the thinkers of this world, and I might just say that those who do so simply demonstrate that they have lack in their own lives a satisfying normative Christian experience.

Normative meaning as described in the Bible. I'm not saying they're not Christians, but there are many Christians who live subnormally, and I would think that anybody who says, well, God is not enough, Jesus is not enough, the Bible is not enough, we need also to get something from these other people. Obviously a person who says that is simply testifying that he has not found God to be enough.

He has not found the Bible to be enough to solve all of his spiritual problems. And that person is admitting a great deal about himself, but is not necessarily telling us anything about universal truths. And it is unfortunate that in our day so many Christians, or people who profess to be Christians, and I will not make the judgment as to which category any particular individual lies within, but certainly people who are wearing the name of Christian speak very much like non-Christians on issues that are so essential to victory, sanctification, holy living, and discipleship.

And instead of speaking as the word of God speaks, and as Christians have spoken for centuries before, they have adopted the language and the concepts out of secular psychology, the counsel of the unrighteous, the counsel of the ungodly. And this is a sad thing because, first of all, the success of such a movement simply is a symptom of the rareness of genuine normative Christian experience among those who name the name of Christ. And secondly, the fact that people walked with God in the biblical fashion, in the way that Christians have historically always been expected to walk with God and have always found adequate in the past, there would be no market for Christian psychology and self-help and 12-step programs and all these things.

There would be no desire to find a more enlightened view of self-image than that which the Bible teaches. And sadly, there is a great market for such things, proving that most people, or a very large number of people in the churches, including the academy, the Christian academy, they know nothing in personal experience, or very little apparently, of the adequacy of Christianity and of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit and of scriptures to meet all the needs of the human condition. Now, I believe that the view of self is one of the issues upon which Christianity and psychology take such opposite positions that one can hardly find justification for mixing the two ideas, and yet some have done so.

Now, there has arisen in some conservative circles of Christianity, in some evangelical and fundamentalist circles, an opposition to the psychological movement. And there are books and newsletters critical of Christian psychology, even as I am personally critical of Christian psychology. It is, however, in my opinion, possible to pendulum swing in reaction to a movement and to throw out all things that seem to be trappings of such a movement, even if there is no valid reason to throw them out entirely.

In some cases, the error is not diametrically opposed to the truth. Sometimes it's just a shade off, or it's a misinterpretation of truth. And some of the things in psychology, and perhaps some of the language of self-help, is not so much diametrically opposed to Christianity, but is a shade off to the point of being dangerous, deadly.

It may say some things that are true. For example, the people who say, well, our needs are met in Christ, and therefore we can be whole people only as we find Christ. Well, there's truth in that, of course.

The problem is, it's a very important shade off of what the Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach that we are to seek our needs to be met. We are to seek God for himself.

And our needs will be met as a consequence of that. But, of course, it is the state of fallen man to always seek his own, to seek his own needs, his own desires, and to present a gospel that appeals to and does not challenge or confront that basic orientation, but rather simply enforces it. It says, yes, you need to have your needs met, and here is one who will meet them, Jesus Christ.

It is to, I think, cater to the basic attitude of man that needs to be repented of. And that is the self-love, the self-idolatry. Now, what I shared yesterday, quite a bit, about those who are trying to mix self-love and self-image teaching of psychology with Christianity, and I told you some of the things I felt were wrong-headed about that, though we did not go into in-depth treatment of what the Scripture says on it at the time, because I wanted to save that consideration for this lecture.

I want to focus now, not on psychology in any way, shape, or form, but just on the scriptural teaching about self. And I do not intend for this to be a polemical presentation, but simply an educational one. And the reason I say that is because when you are being polemical, when you are arguing a point, you sometimes will demonize the opponent to the point where you feel like you have to distance yourself from them unreasonably far for the sake of making your point.

I am going to try to give this lecture, I cannot entirely succeed in this, but I am going to try to give this lecture as if I were in a climate where there is no debate on the subject. I just want to examine the Scripture and see what arises from the Scripture. When we are asked, what does the Scripture say about self? And as I pointed out in our last lecture, really the Bible does not use the word self, because self is kind of a new, novel word when used as a noun.

It is very commonly used as a noun. Self. You have got to love your self.

And your self is something to be found, whose needs need to be considered, who needs to be imaged and appreciated and valued, the self. But really, in the Bible and really in human thought in general throughout history, self has not been a noun, it has simply been something affixed to a pronoun, myself, himself, herself, themselves. And it is more of an emphatic declaration of personhood.

Really, when we talk about the self, and there is no biblical use of that word, I think that when people speak of the self, they are saying the same thing that I am saying when I say I or me. Freud spoke of the ego. He did not make up that word.

That is simply the Greek word for I. And he kind of personified it and made it a subcategory of the human makeup. But actually, if we were to speak of the ego in non-Freudian terms, we are just speaking of who I am. I. Not you, not someone else, but I. Me.

That is what the self is. But what am I supposed to think about? Me. I. Myself.

Biblically. There is very much on the subject when we come at it that way. And I want to start out by acquainting you with, and most of our talk today will be discussing three different ways of thinking about yourself, or three different ways of talking about the self, if we wish to use that term.

Because different things can be said about self depending on which angle of the subject we are approaching it from. And I have three ways I would like to discuss of thinking of self. One of the ways, the first way, is what I have called in the outline I have given you, the divided self.

And by the divided self, I am thinking of self as a complex, non-homogenous entity. Partially fallen. Partially recovered from the fall.

The field upon which competing forces of flesh and spirit wage an ongoing warfare. Now this is only the case with Christians. The Bible makes it very clear that Christians differ from non-Christians in a very significant way.

The non-Christian is not a divided self. The non-Christian is a homogenous self. But we are Christians, and the way we are to view ourselves has got to be in the light of what the scripture says about our dividedness in us.

Now some people talk about this as having two natures. I don't prefer that language. Some sadly talk about having two selves.

The old self and the new self. In fact there are some translations of the Bible that have unfortunately translated Paul's expressions which occur in Romans, Ephesians and Colossians where he talks about the old man and the new man. Unfortunately many translations have simply rendered that the old self and the new self.

So that suddenly self becomes a noun in the Bible with this translation. Which it is not generally in the English language until the advent of psychology. But the old self and the new self, I don't know if that has anything to do with what Paul is talking about when he talks about the old man and the new man.

But there certainly is a divided person described in the Christian and not in the non-Christian. Now let me say this, I'm not saying that Christians are schizophrenic and that non-Christians are well adjusted. The non-Christian may not be a consistent person at all.

And there are areas of the non-Christian life that are very much divided. Divided loyalties and desires and so forth. And everybody has conflicts between one set of desires and another within them.

That's what really the human condition always is a mixture of choices and desires. That one thing has to be chosen over another and there are things in conflict and in competition with one another. This is true of the non-Christian as well as the Christian.

What I'm talking about is the distinctive element of the Christian experience is that there is a spiritual self. I don't even want to use the word self. A spiritual aspect that is not alive in the unbeliever.

And that spiritual aspect resides contemporaneously with the desires of the flesh and of the body and so forth. Now in Ephesians chapter 2, which is not a reference that I've given you in your notes, but I want to read to you Paul's assessment of the unsaved, the unregenerate person. And this is in contrast with the believer.

Ephesians 2 beginning at verse 1 says, Now the distinction between the non-Christian and the Christian in Ephesians 2 too is that we once walked according to the course of this world, but now we walk according to Christ. That's a different course. We're on a different path.

We once walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. We now walk according to the Holy Spirit. We walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, Paul says in Romans 8.4. So there is a difference here.

We have a different course and a different spirit. More than that, however, he talks about something internally. He says in verse 3, Now this is the difference.

When I was a non-Christian and when you were a non-Christian, you had a life of fulfilling the desires of your flesh. And the same was a fulfillment of the desires of your mind. Why? Because your mind agreed with the flesh.

Before you repent, which means changing your mind, in your unregenerate condition, your mind and your flesh are on the same track. They have the same goals, self-pleasure, self-affirmation, self-gratification. This is what your mind is committed to when you're unregenerate and that is what your flesh is committed to.

So as you go about fulfilling the lust of your flesh, your mind is right on track with you. Your mind approves of these things. Now here is where the Christian differs.

The Christian still has a flesh. The Christian still has actions on occasions that conform to the flesh, sadly. But the Christian no longer agrees because he has had repentance take place, which is a change of the mind.

Whereas fulfilling the lust of the flesh as a non-Christian was fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, today if you fulfill the lust of your flesh, you are not fulfilling the desires of your mind because your mind has turned against it. As a repentant believer, you have turned against the lust of the flesh. You have turned against the philosophy of self-rule and self-idolatry.

And whenever your flesh is pulling you in the direction of self-idolatry, your mind is against it. Now sometimes your mind, with its holy affections and desires, wins. Sometimes it has been known to occur that the flesh wins.

And this is a tremendous tug of war because you have still the same hormones, you have the same appetites, you have the same urges in your flesh that were there before you were a Christian. But you have changed your mind about those things. And the mind now desires and is pleased with the things of God.

The flesh, however, is unchanged and is now pleased with other things. Let me read to you Romans chapter 7, the classic passage on this subject. There is a parallel to it in Galatians 5, but much shorter.

In Romans 7, beginning with verse 14. Now, as I read this, I realize that there are many opinions as to what Paul is talking about here. And some of you may have different opinions than that which I am espousing.

I'll tell you why. I have bounced back and forth from different opinions and fairly settled on the one that I now hold of this passage. But in Romans 7, verse 14, Paul says, For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Now, this is a passage that makes for many different good sermons, but I don't intend to preach on this. I don't even intend at this moment to talk about the solution to this problem. But what I do want to see in this passage is what is being told to us about ourselves, about our human nature.

Now, the reason this becomes difficult right from the beginning, it's a shame to start off a teaching with a passage that is so controversial. But we need to in order to make the initial points that I need to make here. There are many who believe that Paul could not possibly be talking about the normal Christian experience here.

In fact, there are many who say Paul could not be talking about himself at the time of writing. He speaks in the present tense, but it is thought by many that he is speaking rhetorically or hypothetically in the present tense as if he were somebody else. And that he is either speaking for the condition of the human race before Christ came, or the condition of the sinner, maybe the religious sinner, who has some interest in doing right but finds himself always unable because he does not have the power of Christ in him.

This is how some people understand it. The reason for understanding it thus is because a couple of chapters earlier in Romans 6, Paul said things like, Sin shall not have dominion over you, and let not sin reign in your mortal body, and things like that. And so, it is thought by some that Paul has described the normal Christian life as one where sin really does not ever get the victory.

And where sin occasionally, or frequently, gets victory in the life, that that person cannot really be a Christian because sin shall not reign over your mortal body. And because we walk in the Spirit and so forth, not according to the flesh. Therefore, some find it very impossible to reconcile what Paul has just written here with his condition as a spiritual man.

Furthermore, they say, well look, obviously he is not talking about himself as a spiritual man, he is talking about the carnal man. He says in verse 14, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Well, is Paul a carnal Christian? Obviously not.

He is obviously describing, they say, a carnal Christian. Some believe this is the Christian, or this is either not a Christian, who is just a carnal man, or a carnal Christian, some would say, who has not yet experienced entire sanctification, or who has not been baptized in the Holy Spirit, or whatever the particular brand of deliverance is that a particular denomination or teacher wants to suggest is the victory over sin and the flesh. But let me suggest to you that Paul is in fact talking about the condition even of a spiritual man.

The only thing we need to understand, well there are several things we might need to understand carefully here, but when he says, I do and I practice the things that I hate and that I will not to do, we need not suppose that he is describing this as a lifestyle necessarily. It is not necessarily that he is saying, I am living continually against my principles. I am living continually in sin and disobedience.

Although I wish I could do better, I just have no choice, I just continually do evil. That is not necessarily the way he must be understood to mean his comments. Where he says, I do what I hate, I don't understand why I do it, I practice things that I choose not to practice.

That does not necessarily mean that he does it all the time. If a man has aspirations of being perfect, and every Christian should, then a continual or an occasional, let's just say an occasional, flaw in character that occurs, a reoccurrence of struggle with lust, a reoccurrence of a flash of anger that he would wish to be sanctified from and not have in his life at all. Those things can be very annoying.

In fact, the more holy and the more spiritual a man is, the more sensitive he is about the smaller imperfections of his life. The more great they are in his own estimation, his laws, the more carnal a person is, the less sensible he is of sin in his life, because his whole life and mind is carnal. A fish is not aware of the water that he's in, and you are not aware of the air that you're in unless it's blowing hard against your face and the temperature is uncomfortable.

But the environment in which you live, you become acclimated to, and the man of a carnal mind is not sensitive about sin. Spiritual men are sensitive about flaws and sins in their lives. I'm going to suggest to you that Paul is not saying that he is a carnal Christian here.

When he says, I am carnal, the word carnal means fleshly. And what he goes on to describe there after verse 14 is the problem that the flesh, the physical body, creates for the man struggling to live a holy life. Now there is a victory, and he says in chapter 8, that the victory is walking not according to the flesh, but walking according to the spirit, the power of the spirit of God.

He says, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. This is Romans 8.2. And then in Romans 8.4 he says that the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. It is walking in the spirit that delivers us moment by moment, step by step, from the power of the flesh.

But when we don't take a step in the spirit, and Christians often do not, then we find that the flesh is still there. There is another law in my members that brings me into bondage. Only the walk in the spirit, consistently, daily, step by step, is the deliverance from it.

But Christians are more or less, usually less consistent in walking in the spirit. They desire to do so more, but it is a learned ability, I believe. And consistency in it is not found in many.

And therefore, it is not uncommon for people of spiritual aspiration to love the Lord, who are even spirit-filled people and very sensate about sin in their lives, to find themselves failing when they are not walking in the spirit as they ought to be. And then they feel exactly as Paul does. Now, Paul is not carnally minded.

He makes that clear. You see, over in chapter 8, Paul said in verse 6 and 7 of chapter 8, To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is at enmity with God, or against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. The carnal mind is at enmity with the law of God.

But the man described in chapter 7, his mind embraces the law of God, delights in it. In verse 22, chapter 7, verse 22, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, that is in my body, my flesh, warring against the law of my mind. What is the law of my mind? It is the law my mind embraces, which he says is the law of God.

My mind has chosen God. My mind has turned to Christ. It embraces and delights in the ways of God.

The carnal mind does not do that. When he says I am carnal, he doesn't mean I am carnally minded. We are all carnal in the sense of fleshly.

We have a flesh. This flesh is our body. I am not talking about two natures right now, although we could use that term possibly if we wanted to carefully define what we mean by nature.

But I am a little skittish about the use of the term two natures. People often think of a black dog and a white dog fighting it out inside their heart, and they are a third party referee in the whole thing. It gets to be very complex.

I think the Bible teaching is not so complex. I am a complex divided person. I have a mind that has chosen to obey God.

There is still, however, in my body a set of desires, a law as it were, that is dictating behavior. I do not have to obey it if I walk in the Spirit, but if I do not walk in the Spirit, I find myself continually subject to this other law. It is only a walk in the Spirit that makes me free from the law of sin and death, according to Romans 8.2. In the meantime, when I am not walking in the Spirit, I find to be true in my life what Paul finds to be true in his life when he is not walking in the Spirit.

And did Paul always walk in the Spirit? If you want to say so, then you are not reading the book of Acts all that carefully. Paul had made some mistakes too, not as many as I make. Probably not as many as you make, but he made some too.

He was not a perfect man, nor was Peter. Sometimes even Peter and Paul, or Paul and Barnabas, all of whom name parties are apostles, sometimes they were in conflict with one another and had to take each other to task and so forth. The apostles were not perfect men.

They were certainly godly men. But there were flaws, and a godly man is very sensible of his flaws. Now, one reason I know, or I am convinced that Paul is not here talking about an unconverted person, is, for example, his language in verse 16 and 17.

He says, If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law, that is the law of God, that it is good. That is why I don't want to do the bad thing that I find myself doing. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Now, there is sin dwelling in my flesh, apparently. And when I obey that, he says, it is no longer I. Now, there is self there. Who am I? When I sin, it is no longer I. Now, is Paul trying to renounce personal responsibility for his sins? No, he is not talking about personal responsibility here.

He is talking about the core of who I am, who my identity is. I am a man committed to God. I am a man wishing to obey the law of God.

I am a man whose mind is on God's side. I am not a sinner. There is part of me that I still possess that is drawn to sin.

But the very fact that I have repented, I have turned from a life of sin to a life of holiness. And that is where my commitment is, that is where my will is, that is what I have decided. That is where my general course is taking.

That tells me who I am. Now, there is another part of me, I have got to admit, that is part of me too. I guess if I wanted to talk about I, I would have to include this other division of me.

But the person that God identifies me as is the one that I choose to be, not the one that I am forced to be when I am overcome by a law that I don't agree with. Now, I am not saying there is no responsibility for us to overcome sin. There is.

But what Paul is saying is that it is not encouraging to see myself doing things I hate, but there is one encouragement in it, and that is that I do hate it. That is where I differ from my unconverted self. When I was unconverted, I fulfilled the lust of my flesh and of my mind, it is said in Ephesians 2, 3, that we were fulfilling the lust of our flesh and of our mind.

Now, when my lust is satisfied, my mind is unsatisfied. When my mind is satisfied, my lusts of my flesh are unsatisfied, because there is a war between the spiritual mind, and Paul is describing a war here. You see, notice what he says in verse 17, It is no longer I who do it.

Why does he say no longer? When you say something is no longer the case, you are referring to the fact that this is a second condition in contrast to a prior condition. There is a condition that was prior to this, but the current condition is no longer that. Now, he says, if now it is no longer I that do it, it means there was a time when it was I that did it.

There was a time when when I sinned, that was me. That is who I was. That is what I wanted.

That is what I was choosing. That was descriptive of who I am. But now when I sin, it is not descriptive of who I am.

It is not what I want. It is not agreeable with my mind and my choices in life. You see, when he says no longer, it is now no longer I that do it, he seems to be making a statement that can hardly be understood otherwise than there has been a change in his life from what used to be.

And now it is no longer him. I really like Telford's song, The Wishing Inside of Me. I think it is profound, although I think some particular views of holiness would find it theologically incorrect.

But I personally think it is quite correct. Where he says, there is sin that is living in me, but no longer do I live in sin. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, I am now living in him.

There is now no condemnation to those who in Christ Jesus believe the law of the spirit of life and our Lord has put the wishing inside of me. He talks about like an eagle trapped in a cage longing to fly. I am a prisoner of sin, but it is not where I want to be.

There is something that has changed following Jesus Christ. It is the wishing, the wishing inside of me. Now he is not saying I still sin just as much as I ever did before I repented, but I just, you know, there is no condemnation.

I just live in sin. That is unfortunately how some people think. And it is a reaction against that that some holiness positions take that say, no, you don't even sin now that you are saved.

I think what Paul is saying is when you walk in the spirit, you don't sin. But sadly, Christians don't always walk in the spirit, and when we don't walk in the spirit, we do sin. But we sin against our commitment.

We sin against our disposition. It is against our grain now, and that is the difference. That is why we as Christians can be said to be a divided self, as opposed to the non-Christian who when he sins, he is doing what his mind has committed to.

When a Christian sins, he is doing what his mind has committed not to do. And it hurts. It elicits quick repentance and grief, and the very, you know, the wretched man that I am that Paul describes here.

It is no longer I who choose to do these things. I don't like this anymore. Now, Paul says the same thing over in Galatians 5, and there has never been any question as to whether Galatians 5 is about the pre-Christian or post-conversion self.

Galatians 5 basically has essentially, in verse 17, a summary of Romans 7 in one verse, where he says, For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. That sounds very much like, you don't do the things you wish.

There is a wishing inside of me, and I don't always do the thing I wish I would. Now, Paul is not describing non-Christians here. And no one ever said he was, and yet he is obviously describing the same phenomenon as he discusses in Romans 7. Certainly that passage in Romans 7 cannot be dismissed with so few statements that I have made about it.

There is much controversy about it, much more to be looked at there. It will repay further study. We simply can't dwell on it any longer at this point.

But the point I want to clarify is that there is, in fact, a dividedness about myself. Now, how do I think about myself as a Christian? Well, how should a non-Christian think about himself? Well, he's totally a sinner. There's nothing really good to think about him.

But the Christian, there is another side to it. It is not who I have made myself by any means. It is whom God has made me.

God has changed my mind. I have turned to God, and God has given me a new mind, a new heart. That heart is disposed toward righteousness and hates sin.

That's a good thing. That's a good heart. And I have been made into a child of God.

And that is a positive thing to think about oneself. However, it should never be thought that I've done this to myself or that any credit for this accrues to me. It simply means that I do not have to feel totally rejected by God.

I am accepted in the Beloved. And this is not arbitrary on God's part, although some believe it is. Some believe it was simply because in putting my faith in Jesus Christ and repenting of my sin, God has made something good out of me.

Now, in Romans 7, Paul says there in verse 18, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Now, what is my self-image then? Well, the way I view myself, my flesh, there's no good thing there. Now, this is a very important thing because many people derive their, what we would call, self-image from things that are just flesh, really.

I mean, the world affirms the flesh. If you are better than average looking, you will have grown up receiving a tremendous amount of affirmation from the world because the world values good looks. If you are athletic and have performed well in athletics, you will have grown up receiving tremendous affirmation from the world because the world appreciates those things.

If you are highly intelligent or musical or artistic or have some other skill that most people do not have, which is strictly of the flesh, you will have grown up receiving tremendous affirmation. And the high self-image that most people carry around with them is an image of flesh. They feel good about themselves because they know that they're clever.

They know they can amuse any group of people. They can be the life of the party. They know they're good looking and that people will defer to them for that.

They know that they have money or intelligence or musical ability or something that everyone will just look up to them. And William James, the psychologist, of course, observed, and I don't think that, I mean, although he was not a Christian, I don't know that a Christian would find anything to object to in this observation, that people generally have a self-image that's affected in large measure by what other people think of them. This is, of course, the carnal mind.

This is not how the Christian is to think. But that is true of the carnal person. And unfortunately, many Christians are as carnal as carnal people are.

And their self-image, if they feel good about themselves, it's because they have these fleshly things to feel good about. If they feel badly about themselves, it's because, let's say, the guy was a great football player in college, and everyone loved him, but he went to Vietnam and got shot in the spine and he's paralyzed from the middle of the chest down. And he's spending the rest of his time in a wheelchair, and he's got a low self-image now.

As far as he's concerned, he's half a man now. Why? His self-image was totally based on his flesh. He felt good about himself because of some fleshly thing.

A woman who is beautiful, and everyone has found her breathtakingly beautiful, her self-image dips terribly when she begins to recognize she's put on 20 pounds, overweight, or she wakes up in the morning and she's got a zit on the end of her nose or something. It lowers her self-image, some would say. Now, I don't say it lowers their self-love.

I'm not equating self-image with self-love. People always love themselves. The fact that a woman hates her zit on her nose may make her think herself less valuable, but it will not make her think herself less worthy of love.

She will love herself. When people look in the mirror and say, I hate myself, I'm so ugly, well, they don't hate themselves. If you hate someone, you're very happy to see them suffer.

You only regret seeing misfortune come on people you love. And if you're sorry for yourself that you're not as good-looking or intelligent or athletic or whatever talented as someone else is, and you hate yourself, you say, for such things, really what you hate is your circumstances. You love yourself.

And that is why you hate those circumstances that are detrimental to yourself. Self-love is constant in non-Christians, but self-image is based on, to a large degree, usually a very artificial standard based on the flesh. Now what Paul says, in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing.

So what is my self-image then with regard to the flesh? Well, as a matter of fact, let's just say some of you are very athletic. I'm going to use an illustration that I don't know to be true of any of you in order not to make anyone think I'm singling them out. And I'm certainly using an illustration that's not true of me so that you won't think I'm speaking about myself.

I've never been athletic. But suppose you've been a great athlete, and you've received affirmation for that throughout your life. Now you're a Christian, and people still defer to you, because Christians are carnal too, sometimes.

I mean, not good spiritual Christians, but there's plenty of people in the Church who are carnal, and they think athletics are important. Spiritual people, of course, would never make that mistake. Or they think that good looks are important, or they think that a good voice or musical ability are important.

Carnal people think that way. That's all flesh, of course. And therefore you receive affirmation in the Church for such things too.

But how should you view yourself with reference to those things? There's no good thing that dwells in you, in your flesh. Now is it bad to be good-looking? Is it bad to be athletic or intelligent or musical? That's not bad, but it's not good either. It's indifferent.

It is not anything that increases one's value before God. It is neutral. You did not purchase or earn or acquire your face, if you have a beautiful face.

And although much of athletic and intellectual and musical prowess can be attributed to discipline and work and so forth, one has to acknowledge that some people have native abilities in these areas more than others. Some people can't carry a tune and can't ever... I mean, they're tone-deaf. They just can't become good singers.

There are people who are genetically more inclined to be muscular than others. There's a... I mean, there are some people whose IQ is not as high as other people's IQ. This is not, in God's sight, relevant to one's value.

Sadly, it is in man's sight. And Christians need to begin when they... when they begin to address the issue of how... what do I think of myself? What am I supposed to think about myself? I'm supposed to realize that the things that I have been conditioned to think about myself with reference to, whether it's my looks or whatever, any of these other categories, are not relevant. And if the world has always ignored me because I wasn't good-looking, in Christ that's not relevant anymore.

If the world has always deferred to me because I was good-looking, in Christ that's not relevant anymore. My... the way I think of myself has got to be disassociated with the flesh because I look at my flesh and I say, well, listen, anything that strikes me as advantageous in the flesh, talent, intellect, looks, whatever it is, is at best neutral in anything... in the sense of anything that matters. When you die, it all goes away.

It doesn't carry over into eternity. None of those things carry over into eternity. Therefore, they are neutral at best.

They can be harmful at worst. Therefore, they are not part of my estimation of my own... who I am and who... and what God thinks of me. By the way, the Christian is more concerned about what God thinks of him than about what man thinks of him.

Paul said, if I were yet pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ. And there's a big difference in the way that the Christian views himself from a non-Christian, because the non-Christian, of course, is, as William James suggests, probably going to get most of his self-image from the way people think about him. But the Christian's sense of worth or value or whatever has got to come from the perception of what God thinks.

And it's quite a rude awakening to somebody who's been a celebrity and everyone has spawned on them and deferred to them and admired them and wanted to hear what they had to say and... you know, all their life they become a Christian. Before God, they're no more important than anybody else. They may be way below some others in terms of their actual spiritual worth.

And by the way, people are worth more or less, depending on their spiritual eye. The Bible says so. You might be surprised to hear that.

We'll find a scripture that says so in a moment. Anyway, the point is that the Christian has got to think of himself not in those terms, but in terms of who I am in Christ. Now, I hate to say that.

In fact, I almost want to react against saying that because this is something that Christian psychologists often say. They say, you've got to have a high self-image. You've got to recognize who you are in Christ.

It's who Christ is that's important to me. Not who I am in Christ. But when we focus for the moment on what I do think about myself on those rare occasions I take a glance to think about who I am and what I am and so forth.

I have to see myself in terms of who I am in Christ. This is biblical. In Philemon, verse 6, Paul said, this was his prayer for Philemon, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus, in Christ.

You need to acknowledge every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus. Is this part of your self-image? How could it not be? Now, the interesting thing about this is how it stands in juxtaposition to the passage in Romans 18. Because both of them speak about good things dwelling in you.

In Romans 7, 18, Paul says, in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. But to Philemon he says, I want you to learn to acknowledge all the good things that are in you. But the question is, are there good things in me? Are there good things in me? In my flesh? No.

In Christ? Of course. But we have to understand what it means to be in Christ. In Christ simply means that I cease to be relevant.

I am caught up and absorbed in the larger entity of Jesus Christ. I am in Him as a member of a body, like my little finger is a member of me, or my appendix or my liver is part of me. It is in me.

I am in Christ. And the little finger doesn't have any identity to be concerned with at all. It's who it is in that matters.

A great violinist or pianist, you know, his fingers do most of the work. But people don't just stand around admiring his fingers. Oh, what wonderful, talented fingers you have.

It's the person who gets the credit. Those fingers are just part of that person. They lose their identity as individuals to be part of a body.

And in Christ, there are wonderful things that I have, advantages to me. I mean, righteousness. What are the advantages to me? Well, the book of Ephesians is all about in Christ.

He's made us accepted in the Beloved. We have redemption in Him, the forgiveness of sins. You can just go through Ephesians 1 and highlight all the things that Paul says about us in Christ.

Now, he's not talking about my self-image. He's talking about how much I have gained by being in Christ. My reflection there is not on what a great person I have become in Christ.

What a great opinion of myself I should have because I'm in Christ. What the focus there is how great Christ is and how great benefit has come to me because I am in Christ. Now, how do I view myself? Well, it depends.

Are you asking about how I view my flesh? Or how I view myself in Christ? In Christ simply means as part of Christ. My view of who I am in Christ is simply the same as my view of Christ Himself. To be in Him is to lose myself, to lose my significance.

Not to gain more personal significance, but to lose my individual significance, to be caught up into the significance of the body of Christ. What God is doing. Who Christ is.

Juan Carlos Ortiz used this illustration once. I heard him preaching in Albany once and he said that he had had a steak dinner just before coming to that meeting. And he said that steak dinner, that steak that he ate, had not too long ago been a cow grazing out on an Oregon hillside.

Just one of the herd. But that cow had been slaughtered and butchered and its meat had been served up to him and he had eaten it, chewed it up, dissolved it even more than before. And eventually his digestive juices encountered this meat in his stomach and caused it to be broken down and dissolved even more and more and more until it lost its identity and became part of him.

And he said that, suppose I swallowed this meat and my digestive juices came and encountered this meat and said, Hello, we're here to digest you. And the meat said, I'm sorry, I'm not going to be digested. I'm a cow.

I'm not a person. I'm not a man. I'm a cow.

I have an identity as a cow. And the digestive juices would say, well, I'm sorry, but we've come here to change that. You're going to become part of Juan Carlos Ortiz.

And he says, well, I'm sorry, I'm not going to give up that identity as a cow. It's an important thing to me and I don't want to be lost in this assimilation. Well, he said the only option then would be for the body to vomit it out.

And Jesus said of the lukewarm, he's going to vomit them out of his mouth. Those that will not be lost in him and give up their individual significance in order to be part of Jesus Christ and simply for their existence to contribute to his identity and his significance are simply going to have to be vomited out. Because it is not God's purpose to come and make me significant.

It is God's purpose to come and make me lose myself in Christ. Then who am I in Christ? Just a part of Christ. But that's good.

That's a positive thing to think about myself. I'm part of Jesus. It's all of grace, so I take no credit for it.

But that's not a bad thing to think. In the flesh, when I think of who I really am me, apart from Christ, I don't have anything good to think about that. I mean, it may be that I've been complimented over the years from my childhood about certain aptitudes or whatever, but those things are of no value.

I cannot allow those things to be even taken into consideration when I'm thinking about who I am, how important I am, and so forth. Those things are unimportant, totally unimportant. So, you know, the scripture says we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

It looks like I may have accidentally removed that or put it in another place on these notes, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That's actually, yeah, I must have accidentally removed it from our notes. I'm sorry about that.

But it is 2 Corinthians, what, 4? 7? Thank you. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Is there a treasure in you? There is.

Are there good things in you in Christ Jesus? There are. So who are you? You're an earthen vessel with a treasure in you. How much is an earthen vessel worth? Not a whole lot.

Paul chooses the imagery because they are more or less close to worthless, earthen vessels. What's a treasure worth? Inestimable worth. What are you? You are an earthen vessel with a treasure in you.

What part did you bring to that? You brought the earthen vessel. What part did God bring? The treasure. But he's there.

He's in you. Is there potential there? Is there value there? There is. But whose is it? Not yours.

His. This makes very little contribution to your elevated self-worth. There are good things in you in Christ Jesus, but you're the earthen vessel.

He's the treasure. Is an earthen vessel full of treasure of value? Of course. But not in itself.

It's because of the treasure. Not the vessel. And this is the way that I think of myself.

As a matter of fact, this realization makes me not think of myself very much at all. When people see an earthen vessel full of treasure, they don't think very much about the vessel. They think of the treasure.

The earthen vessel is rather ignored in deference to the treasure that it contains. If you found an old chest buried on a tropical island shore that contained a pirate's treasure, you wouldn't just stand around and look at this beautiful woodwork on this chest. Look at this and fail to open it.

Just look at how long these nails have been. These are pretty rusty nails here. But my goodness, it's still held together.

This is a sturdy chest. This is a great chest. I think I'll see if I go into manufacturing chests like this when I get back home to America.

These chests really hold up. Now, if there's a treasure in it, you're going to be ignoring the chest, breaking open the lock, and almost forgetting that there's a chest there. Because what you're interested in is the treasure.

And likewise with an earthen vessel. There was a woman who had an earthen vessel full of precious ointment that she poured over Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus said this thing she did would be told about her every time the Gospel was preached.

It hasn't really been fulfilled, not in the literal sense, because sometimes the Gospels are preached without mentioning this. But apparently it should be mentioned from time to time, at least, when the Gospel is preached. And this vessel, no one paid any attention to the vessel.

In fact, the vessel had to be broken in order for it to obtain any notice at all. But when the vessel was broken, the precious ointment was poured out all over Jesus. And John says in his description of it in the Gospel of John that the fragrance filled the room.

And when people smelled that fragrance, they weren't thinking about that vessel. They were thinking of what it had contained. That vessel, when it contained the perfume, was of great potential value, but not until the vessel was broken was there any actual appreciation of what it could be and what it could do and how it could bless.

So this is a very important thing for us to bear in mind. There are good things in Christ Jesus, but the very statement, in Christ Jesus, means it has nothing to do with me. So it makes no contribution to any pride or credit that I could claim for myself.

It is, in one sense, irrelevant to my self-image. But you see, the whole point of the biblical teaching of myself is that self is something you're not going to spend very much time imaging at all. Self is the least important thing in the Christian life.

And there are different ways to think of it. I'm a divided person. If I think about who I am in my flesh, it's a pretty ugly situation.

But if I think of who I am in Christ, well, I'm not really anyone in Christ. I'm part of Him. But that's a very positive thing.

And there are good things about being in Christ that I can feel very positive about. I'm a child of God. I'm in the family.

But the focus is not on me, the child, but on God, the Father, and the grace of God in allowing me to have that benefit. Now, there's a couple other ways that we need to think about the self before we're done here. The Bible actually talks about self.

We talk about self as the divided self, which is a complex of non-homogenous entity, a partially fallen, partially recovered from the fall, the field upon which the competing forces of flesh and spirit wage an ongoing warfare. There's another way in which the self can be considered in Scripture, and that is what I'm calling the personal self, which I have defined as the aggregate of unique personal qualities, tastes, and goals, humanness or personhood, as opposed to a faceless cog in the numberless masses of humanity. This view of self is relevant to concepts of self-worth, self-love, self-importance.

This is viewing self as contrasted with and evaluated with reference to God. There's going to be another way we'll look at self yet, where it's contrasted with and evaluated with reference to others. But the self as evaluated against the backdrop of God, there are several concepts interesting to people to talk about, about self-image and so forth, that have to do with self in this capacity.

The first of this is self-worth. What am I worth? What value do I have? Well, the Christian is only concerned to answer that with reference to God. Compared to God, what am I worth? How does God value me? In Matthew 10, verse 31, Jesus said, Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Now, Jesus had just said that not one sparrow falls to the ground except by your Father's will. God is attentive to the sparrows. He's aware of everything going on.

He's concerned about them. But he says, don't be afraid, because you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10, verse 31.

Now, that is certainly a statement about worth in the sight of God. We, human beings, are worth more than sparrows. Now, that's not an extremely flattering statement, since sparrows, by another statement of Jesus, are confirmed to be worth very little.

Jesus once said that you can buy four sparrows for two pennies. Or no, what was it? He said, I believe it was two. Okay, two sparrows for a penny in one gospel.

In another gospel, he said you could get five sparrows for two pennies. That's how it goes. Now, of course, two sparrows for a penny, you'd expect to get four for two pennies.

But you'd get five for two pennies, which means they'd throw one in. If you buy four, you get one free. Which means that sparrows didn't have an awful lot of worth.

But we're worth more than many sparrows. Well, I don't know how many you have to accumulate to make you feel good about your self-worth there. Several million.

Actually, I think we're probably, to God, worth infinitely more than sparrows, because we are eternal beings capable of living with him in fellowship with him, which sparrows cannot. But the point is that Jesus is making a positive statement about how we are of our value to God. There are some who would say that we're not of any value to God.

And that is true when we consider ourselves in our flesh. In my flesh, I can do nothing. I cannot please God.

I cannot be subject to God. I cannot do anything of value in my flesh. But fortunately, I am not entirely defined by my flesh.

There are also those good things that are in me in Christ Jesus, and those things are valued. There's a treasure in the earthen vessel, and the treasure has value. And it is identified with this earthen vessel.

And therefore, there is worth there that God attributes, that God imputes. Now, this is not a matter for my self-image to be puffed up about, because it is something that God has done everything with. But there are some people who feel obligated to God's honor and to a low view of man to say that man is not worth anything to God.

Not even potentially. I disagree with that. Man is potentially worth a great deal to God.

God does value man. God values children just like you would value your children. And potentially, you can be a child of God, and that makes you a thing of value to God.

A thing that he sets his desire and his affection upon. On the other hand, Proverbs 10.20 says, The heart of the wicked is of little worth. Proverbs 10.20, it's in your notes.

The heart of the wicked is of little worth. So, a non-Christian, a sinner, should never be encouraged to have high self-esteem, because he is of little worth in the sight of God. Now, he's of potential worth.

If he would repent and become a child of God, then he'd be worth something. But, his heart is of little worth, as far as God is concerned. I do have the scripture there under this category.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We have worth in Christ. And it is Christ who has the value.

We are the ones, we don't bring anything to the value of that combination. In 1 Corinthians 1.26-31, Paul said, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. Well, Paul, you're putting them down.

Paul, you're going to hurt their self-image, saying, you look around, not many of you are noble, not many are wise, not many are mighty. Shouldn't you be kind of increasing their self-image, so they can live more victorious Christian lives? No, it says, No, in the flesh, after the flesh, there's not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, the base things of the world. He's talking about you. Are you offended? You're the foolish, you're the weak, you're the base things.

That is not encouraging to your self-image. But he's chosen these things because he can do something with them. And the things that are despised, God has chosen, yea, and the things which are not, things that are nothing.

He's talking about you, he's talking about me, he's talking about us. To bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. This is, what are the good things that are in you in Christ Jesus? Well, here's some of them.

Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Christ has been made all of those things to us. Do you have wisdom? Yes.

Do you have righteousness? Yes. Sanctification, redemption? Yes. All of the above.

Well, then you're worth something, right? Well, Christ is worth something. Christ has become all of that to us. In the flesh we have nothing.

We are the base. We are the nothings. We are the things that are not.

That God has chosen the foolish so that he can make sure that there's no glorying in the flesh here. Your weaknesses are advantageous because you cannot trust in yourself. Hudson Taylor said something like, it took God a very long time to find somebody as weak as me so that he could show his power through as he has.

Romans 12, 3 says, For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Even your faith is a bestowment from without. You don't have anything to boast about at all.

And do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to. To have a high self-image here is apparently not appropriate. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

And as you may have heard, the word poor in the Greek here speaks of that class of people who were so poor that they were the beggars. There were in Israel poor people who were landowners. They inherited land, but they didn't have much else.

They could eke out a living for themselves by hard toil and work. And they had a lot of kids and they had a few hours of the day and so forth, but they survived. They were the people of land.

They were the poor, but there was another class of poor, and they were people who had nothing. They had no land, no opportunity. Many of the times they were handicapped people, disabled people.

And they had nothing to do to save their lives but to beg. And that is the term that is used here for the poor. Blessed are the beggars in spirit.

Why? Because they can receive. The beggar knows that he has nothing to contribute, only he is in the position to receive from the generosity of others. And the person who is like the Pharisee who thinks himself to have much to offer is not going to receive blessing.

In fact, Jesus told a parable about that. In Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14, he says, And he spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray.

The one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week.

I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other man.

For everyone who exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. So with reference to our existence in juxtaposition with God, we are of little worth, of no worth in ourselves. And it is best for us to see ourselves as beggars, as having nothing to contribute.

But God has a great deal to contribute. And once he has contributed it, you have tremendous value, you have tremendous potential, but all of it is God's. All of the value is God's value.

All of the potential is God's potential. There is not now, it's not now time to elevate your self-esteem, because God has brought so many things into this picture. You elevate your esteem of him, and your esteem of self must continue to be that of a beggar, continually a pensioner on the generosity of someone else, namely God.

How does this self measure up in the area of self-love? Are we to love ourselves? Of course, Mark 12, 31, Jesus said the second commandment is like it, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, this is not a command to love yourself. I don't know, I shouldn't have to say this.

For centuries, no Christian ever mistakenly thought that this was a command to love self. It does not, it's not cast in the form of a command to love the self. It does not suggest that there is a self-love that is to be advocated.

It was not until self-love became a hip concept through the introduction of certain humanistic psychology that self-love became something that Christians began to see advocated in this passage. It is not advocating anything like self-love. It is saying you must love your neighbor as you love yourself.

He's not saying learn to love yourself so you can learn to love your neighbor. He's saying you do love yourself. This is a given.

Now, learn to love your neighbor the way you love yourself. And there is no command here to love self. Actually, self-love is a great sin.

Because love is not so much a matter of affection or positive feelings toward. Love is a description of a commitment to lay down one's life for someone. To love God means you lay down your life for God.

You make every sacrifice necessary for God. To love others means the same thing. You lay down your life for another.

Greater love hath no man than this, but he laid down his life for his friends, Jesus said. Love of self means you sacrifice everything for yourself. And the things you end up sacrificing are things that are the interest of others.

Because your interest, your self-interest, is in conflict with the claims of other people's self-interest. And if you seek the welfare of yourself, if you seek to sacrifice other things for your own self, that's what love of self is. Commitment to make sure self is happy.

When you love someone, you want to make them happy. If your commitment is to make yourself happy, you will always be in conflict with other people. If you're willing to die to self and to renounce self-interest and just commit yourself to loving God and loving people, and serving their interests, put yourself last, then you'll find joy.

Actually, I learned this as a child in Sunday school. J-O-Y, Jesus, others, you. That's the order.

You put Jesus first, others second, you last, and that's joy. And it's a nice little acrostic. Someone comes up with these things for Sunday school children, and then they're spoiled by the fact that they sound juvenile, but they're actually quite profound.

It says in 2 Timothy 3, 2, For men should be lovers of their own selves. Self-love. Covetous.

Bolsters. Proud. Blasphemous.

Doesn't sound like a good batch to be in. Ungrateful. Unholy.

When Job, at the end of his book, saw God, his response is given in Job 42, 6. He says, Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Do you know that Job didn't get healed until he came to that point? Some people say you'll never be well-adjusted, you'll never be mentally healthy until you learn to love yourself. Job was in trouble.

His attitude was bad. He was, in some sense, boastful. He was a basket case until he came to a place where he says, I have heard of thee with the hearing of my ear, but now my eyes see of thee, and I abhor myself.

I detest myself. And I repent in dust and ashes. Then he got better.

Same kind of thing happened to Nebuchadnezzar. When he was congratulating himself for the empire he had built in Daniel chapter 4. It says he went mad. But later on, after seven times passed over, he looked to the God of heaven and his wits returned to him.

And he didn't boast about himself anymore. He glorified God. You see, sanity is not associated with high self-image.

It was insanity that came on Nebuchadnezzar as a result of his self-image being high. When he came back to his senses, he was not talking about himself anymore. He was talking about the God of heaven and the great glorious things that he had done.

The Bible does not encourage us to think highly of ourselves or to love ourselves. In fact, Paul said that people don't hate themselves. Ephesians 5, 29, No man yet ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord does the church.

Now, some people say, well, wait, some people hate their flesh, don't they? What about the anorexic person who starves himself to death because they think their flesh is too fat? Or what about the suicidal? What about the person who commits suicide? Certainly he hates his flesh. It depends on what you're calling flesh. If we're talking about self-love here, these people love themselves.

Otherwise, they'd be contented with what God has given them. If you love God and self becomes inconsequential by contrast, then you are content with what God gives. You may not like the body you have as much as you could imagine liking another kind of body, but if it's the one God has given you, then that's the one you accept.

You don't go killing yourself over it. If your circumstances are painful and grievous, if you're trusting in God, you realize that your circumstances are from his hand and your love for God caused you to embrace them. It says, look up that my father has given me.

Shall I not drink it? But if I love myself, my griefs and my frustrations and my depression is so displeasing to myself, I may come to the point of killing myself. Why? Because I hate myself? No, because it's the easiest way out for me. It's the most selfish act I can do.

I think I'm putting myself out of my misery, but everyone else who loved me in misery. It destroys my parents and anyone else who ever cared about me if I commit suicide. Who cares about them? I care about myself when I commit suicide.

Whatever other rationalizations may be made by the person thinking that way, it is the most self-serving act and it is certainly an act of cruelty to others. Actually, of course, if the truth were known, it's an act of cruelty to the self too, because they go to hell, but they don't know that and they don't see it that way. They do it as an act of self-love.

Love is not what you think it is. Love is commitment to the happiness and well-being of someone else. If you're seeking your own happiness and unhappiness drives you to suicide because you think that will make you happier, that will take the pain away, then that is a selfish act, not an unselfish act.

No one ever hated himself. With reference to this view of self vis-a-vis God, what about our ideas of self-importance or significance? Well, as I said earlier, if I'm thinking of myself properly, I'm not very important in the larger scheme of things. I am dispensable.

Whatever I have to contribute to the welfare of the gospel or the kingdom of God or to the world is something that I received as a gift from God, and that being the case, God could take it from me and give it to someone else. I am dispensable. It is sometimes thought that if someone has a unique gift or unique insights or unique contribution they make, that it would be a great disaster for them to die, and the world would be deprived of them or the church would be deprived of them.

But if it's really something of value, it is a gift from God which he can give to another. I am dispensable. Until I accept that fact and until that is part of my view of myself, I can never be at peace because I'll always have to make sure that I'm looking out to preserve this indispensable person I call myself.

Whereas if I see myself as expendable, then I'm seeing things correctly. Galatians 6.3 says, If a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Galatians 6.3 Now some people think, well yeah, if a person is nothing and they think themselves something, they're deceiving themselves, but the Bible doesn't say that a man is nothing.

And we shouldn't think of ourselves as nothing. If you go around telling people you think you are nothing, they're going to send you off to a counselor to help massage your self-esteem. Paul, however, said in 2 Corinthians 12.11, I am become a fool in glorying or in boasting, ye have compelled me.

For I ought to have been commended by you. For in nothing I am behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. In other words, even though I am nothing, I'm not a whit behind anyone else.

Everyone else is nothing too. Even the chiefest apostles are nothing. I'm not behind them any, but I'm not ahead of them either.

I'm nothing and so are they. That's Paul's assessment. I once read an article in Christianity Today written by two psychology professors from George Fox College.

I don't remember who they were, but they were arguing for self-esteem as a biblical concept. And they said, you know, Moses and Paul certainly had high self-esteem because Moses wouldn't have been able to stand before Pharaoh the way he did if he didn't have high self-esteem. And Paul wouldn't have been able to say in 1 Corinthians 11, be followers of me as I am of Christ.

No man could say that unless he had high self-esteem, they said. I thought, what two bad examples to pick to prove their points. Moses, he stood before the burning bush and Moses said, who am I to go stand before Pharaoh? Moses didn't have high self-esteem and Paul said, I am nothing.

That is not exactly a model of high self-esteem, but it is a model of Christian attitude. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, 5, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. You know, people say, well, you need to have a better view of yourself.

Why? I'm not the message. What I think of myself isn't part of the message. The message is what I think of Jesus.

I'm not preaching myself. I'm preaching Jesus. So what's it matter what I think of me? What's it matter what anyone thinks of me? If I am the message, then that matters a great deal.

If I'm converted and the carnal Christian, the self is the focus. Talk about myself, make sure people notice me, make sure I get credit for what I do. I am the message.

But that's not the case for the spiritually minded Christian. I don't preach myself. I preach Christ Jesus.

What if someone criticized me? What if I become the victim of slander or libel? False accusation. Well, that may not be a problem. If it discredits the gospel that I preach, then that can be a problem.

But if it just makes me sink into lower visibility and lesser significance in the eyes of people, that's fine. I'm not the message. I'm not that important.

Also, we need to consider in this view of self what the impact is on the ideas of self-sufficiency or self-confidence. A lot of people say you need to have self-confidence. Some people would say that I have self-confidence because I'm not really intimidated.

I can speak in any situation. I'll debate anyone. I'm not intimidated in the least, but I don't have any self-confidence in the sense that I think I understand that term.

I know that I don't have what it takes in myself to accomplish anything good, but I do believe that I've got someone in there with me, and he's the one who does it. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. He didn't have a sense of self-sufficiency.

We're not sufficient of ourselves to think any of this has to do with us. Our sufficiency is of God. Yes, we are sufficient.

We are adequate. We can do whatever God wants us to do, but not because we're sufficient, but because God is sufficient. God is adequate.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but without Him I can't do anything. Moses at the burning bush said to God, Who am I that I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Exodus 3, 11. He didn't say, Yeah, God, you picked the right man.

It's obvious. I mean, I was raised in Pharaoh's court. I was mighty in word and deed.

I've led armies of Pharaoh. I've got a great education. I've got an ethnic link with these people.

Plus, I've got recognition in Pharaoh's court. I can see you made a pretty good choice here. If you're going to find someone to try to lead these children of Israel out of Egypt and confront Pharaoh.

Moses didn't think a thing like that. All that was flesh. All he knew is he was nothing.

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? I have in those notes, I've given you some quotes from Thomas Akempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ. One of my favorite devotional books. The man doesn't agree with everything that Protestants would agree with since he was a Catholic.

But he certainly had a classic biblical opinion of self. And that's something that comes up frequently in his writings is about self-image. And one of the prayers in his book of The Imitation of Christ goes like this.

Oh, Lord, if I rightly saw myself, I could not say that any person had ever unjustly treated me. And therefore, I cannot just justly complain before Thee. But because I have frequently and grievously sinned against Thee, every creature may rightly take arms against me.

To me, therefore, is justly due confusion of face and contempt. But to Thee, praise, honor, power and glory. And unless I am ready and gladly willing to be despised and forsaken by all creatures, and to be regarded as altogether nothing, I cannot be inwardly at peace, nor gain strength and spiritual illumination, nor be fully united to Thee.

This is a very different view of self than that which is popular in modern Christianity. Of course, this is a several hundred year old view, but it's the biblical view of self. And it's a healthy one.

It's one that brings peace. Those who are always trying to massage their self-image are never at peace. That's why they keep going to therapists.

You find peace by forgetfulness of self, by renunciation of self, by dying to self, not by elevating self. Now, there's another aspect of self in the Bible. It's not just with reference to God, but with reference to others.

The social self, seen as a responsible agent in society, having a combination of duties and personal interests. Essentially, the self in the word selfish, as in self-promotion, self-interest. This is self contrasted with and evaluated with reference to other people.

The Bible says some things about self in that connection as well. With reference to self-interest, Paul said in Philippians 2, 4, Let each of you look not out for his own interests, don't look out for yourself, but also for the interests of others. Romans 15, 1 says, We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

We're not here to look out for our own interests and please ourselves. Romans 14, 7, For none of us lives to himself, and no man dieth to himself. The context there is we don't do things only with reference to how they affect ourselves.

We're more concerned about how they affect others and the glory of God. In Luke 9, 23, Jesus said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. This is death to self-interest.

When you become a Christian, you put self-interest aside and make the interests of the kingdom of God your whole concern. And the interests of others are what God himself wants you to be concerned about. Also, the idea of self-promotion is condemned.

Self-promotion is always at the expense of someone else who is not promoted. Self-promotion always is above someone else. Paul says, It is not he who commended himself that is approved, but whom the Lord commended.

2 Corinthians 10, 18 Philippians 2, 3 Philippians 2, 3 says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than themselves. Your self-image, your self-esteem, well you should esteem others better than you esteem yourself.

Luke 14, 11 says, For whoever exalts himself shall be brought low. He that humbles himself shall be exalted. And here is a very important verse about self-image.

1 Corinthians 4, 7 For who maketh you differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received it? Everything you have that makes you differ from another is a gift from God. If you begin to take credit for it and think you deserve some kind of promotion or rank or recognition for it, then you are treading dangerously on thin ice with God. Now in terms of our self-related to others, there is also ramifications in the realm of personal responsibility.

A lot of people want to blame others for their own actions. And the Bible tells us we need to look to ourselves for that. That is for taking responsibility for our actions.

In 2 Corinthians 10, 12 Paul said, We dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Why isn't that wise? It's not wise because God doesn't compare you with others.

He compares you with him and his standards. He's not going to judge you by how you measured up on a curve with others. Don't measure yourself by others.

Don't consider yourself more holy or godly than someone else. That's not the issue. It says in Galatians 6, 4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.

That is, he'll take responsibility and get credit for his own activities, not what someone else does. No one else is going to get the blame for what you do, nor the credit. For every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Romans 14, 12 says. We're going to stand before God on our own merits and demerits, not those of others. Thomas Akempis, in the imitation of Christ, said, Quote, You should not reckon yourself better than others, less perhaps in the eyes of God, who knows what is in man, you are considered worse.

Be not vain in your good works, because God's judgment is different oftentimes from man's. And what is pleasing to one is displeasing to the other. If there is any good in yourself, believe that there is more in others, that you may preserve your humility.

It will not hurt you to put yourself under others, but it will be most hurtful to you to put yourself before others, even before one. The lowly have continual peace, but the heart of the proud is continually disturbed by jealousy and indignation. Remember, Moses said, Who am I that I should go before Pharaoh? God didn't answer that question directly.

God's answer was, Certainly I will be with thee. Who am I is not the concern or the focus for the Christian. Self forgetfulness and focus on God is the attitude of the Christian.

I'm not concerned about who I am. It doesn't matter. My deficiencies or my strengths are inconsequential.

That my submission to God and my total surrender to God and my loss of myself and my self-interest in the will of God is the Christian's concern, not having the right self-image. In the imitation of Christ, Thomas Achembas said, actually, this is God speaking to him. He wrote it down.

It says, But he who attributes anything good to himself hinders God's grace from coming to him, because the grace of the Holy Spirit seeks a humble heart. If you could be completely emptied of self and rid of all attachment to the creature, then might my presence be shed abroad within you with great grace. Learn to conquer yourself in all things for the Creator's sake, and then you'll gain true knowledge of him.

A.W. Tozer said, The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ. What he is no longer concerns him.

He believes that he has been crucified with Christ. Again, in Achembas's words, God is speaking to him, saying, My son, you cannot possess perfect liberty unless you deny yourself holy. All self-seekers and self-lovers are bound in fetters.

They are full of desires, full of cares, ever unsettled, and always they seek their own comfort, not the things of Jesus Christ. Hold fast this short and perfect word. Forsake all, and you shall find all.

Relinquish base desire, and you shall find rest.