Much of our 21st century teaching seems to be on the edge of fulfilling the prophetic words of Paul, who said, in the latter days people will be lovers of self.
Books like Joel Osteen's Become a Better You and Your Best Life Now speak so much of self-image. I thought hard and long about why this seems so wrong to me when it has the appearance of something so good. Then it occurred to me that self-worth is about how one esteems oneself. I know that sounds obvious, but let me try to explain why that bothers me. The word “worship” comes from the archaic English word “worth-ship,” meaning “full of worth.” We worship that to which we ascribe worth or value. We worship God because He is the ultimate value in the world. Of course, everything else pales in worth by comparison. Therefore, when we talk about our self-worth, it seems to me we’re dangerously close to saying we worship ourselves. The same can be said about self-image. One of the commandments is that we are not to worship any man-made image. I wonder, does that include our own image!
In his book The Life of God in the Soul of Man (1674), Henry Scougal wrote: "The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love." If our excellency as human beings is measured by that which we love, and our modern teaching is more about ourselves than God, we are certainly living in low times.
Books like Joel Osteen's Become a Better You and Your Best Life Now speak so much of self-image. I thought hard and long about why this seems so wrong to me when it has the appearance of something so good. Then it occurred to me that self-worth is about how one esteems oneself. I know that sounds obvious, but let me try to explain why that bothers me. The word “worship” comes from the archaic English word “worth-ship,” meaning “full of worth.” We worship that to which we ascribe worth or value. We worship God because He is the ultimate value in the world. Of course, everything else pales in worth by comparison. Therefore, when we talk about our self-worth, it seems to me we’re dangerously close to saying we worship ourselves. The same can be said about self-image. One of the commandments is that we are not to worship any man-made image. I wonder, does that include our own image!
In his book The Life of God in the Soul of Man (1674), Henry Scougal wrote: "The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love." If our excellency as human beings is measured by that which we love, and our modern teaching is more about ourselves than God, we are certainly living in low times.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteSo in God's opinion what ARE we worth? And how do we mirror the answer to that question so that we keep things in a biblical perspective?
Are we not just as much in error to underestimate our worth as we are to overestimate?
It is my understanding that our worth is based solely on His declaration and decree, and the fact that we still retain sufficient amount of His image and likeness--in spite of the Fall--to bring Him varying degrees of joy and grief.
Joel Osteen's incomplete picture as portrayed in his books and sermons and appearances on TV is truly erroneous because it leaves out the fact that our flesh needs to be crucified and our spirit needs to be regenerated before we can even begin to talk sensibly about self-worth.
A subject I rarely hear taught in our churches is the worth of King Jesus to be worshipped, adored, exhalted, lauded, magnified, etc. How difficult it is for our modern-day culture based on the democratic/republic form of government to even conceive of the right of the King of the Universe to be held in such a high regard that our rights, our sense of worth, our self-image are all kept at bay under His rights to rule and reign over us, His worthiness to receive all of our worship, and His image stamped upon our lives deeper and more pronounced that anything of this earth!
I know it the enemy of our soul's purpose to keep us in the dark when it comes to recognizing our place under God, yet still being the "apple of His eye." And so we find it easy to vacillate between one extreme or another. But one thing we can do that is always right and that is to joyfully submit to the regal-ess, the king-liness,the worthiness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This will simplify our return to balance.
When I wrote my book "Are You Dying to Live the Abundant Life", I thought long about this idea of self-image and self-worth. I came to the conclusion that Adam and Eve did not conern themselves with self-worth because they were only aware that they had God-worth. Again, it is not 'what' we are but 'whose' we are that gives us worth!
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteDoes 'what' we are have any value, then, and how is that determined if we do? Neil Anderson (I believe you are familiar with his books) has made it a point to provide examples of a series of confessions for people to recite to help them 'rescript' the track of their life and the phrases all begin with "I am..." While some of these "I am" confessions do continue with acknowledgments of relationship, most define or rather redefine the 'what' we are as we walk in newness of life. Given, all of these "I am's" are 'in Christ' to begin with so they, in fact, couldn't exist apart from a progressive relationship of intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ. But they nevertheless do exist as 'what's' that give us value. Unfortunately, because our flesh raises its ugly head so easily in pride for any positive statement alluding to our value, it is all too frequent that, in trying to conform our understanding and attitude about our God-declared' worth, we end may end up like the donkey Jesus was riding on when He rode His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Though all the people were cheering for Jesus, I bet the donkey thought they were cheering for him! (Sorry to digress, but that was a scene in a church play for children--it seemed appropriate here) It in no way invalidates our value just because we go overboard in assuming we are "all that" based on the cheers of heaven and earth. But it does, however, make us having missed the point and even in the times of greatest revelation about our new identity in Christ there is still a danger of our enemy taking something good and worthy and twisting it to appeal to our flesh. My mother had a warning she spoke tome often, "Son, if the enemy can't get behind you and push you into temptation, don't be surprised if he comes around in front of you to try to pull you into it!"
We are on the same page here. The "I am in Christ" statements are biblical and can help us in the process of 'putting off the old' and putting on the new.' But you are correct that at some point we realize we derive our life from Jesus.
ReplyDeletePaul says in Colossians 3, "When Christ who is our life is revealed,then you also shall be revealed with Him in glory." As a matter of spiritual maturity, the more we grow, the less we think of ourselves. It is like the way we teach little children. We instill in them self-confidence and good self-esteem, knowing that some day, as adult believers, they will realize their total dependence on Him and will exchange all self-relliance and self-confidence for the "life" of Christ.