SELF ESTEEM (Part 3)

by Dr. W. J. Prost

OCCUPATION WITH CHRIST

True Christianity makes everything of Christ, and nothing of self, and here lies the root of every problem in the Christian life. Why are there (and I say it with shame) so many divisions among Christians today? Why did the Church not stay together as it was at the beginning? It is because man wanted to have a place, instead of allowing Christ to be everything. Every false teaching, without any exception whatsoever, gives some glory to man, and takes away from the glory of Christ.

If you and I are occupied with Christ, and our thoughts are taken right away from ourselves, it will have an amazing effect on us. People will look at us and say (not that this is our wish, but it will happen), "They seem to be at peace with themselves. They have no problem with self-esteem." We will have a moral dignity about us which others may call self-esteem, but it is not self-esteem, it is "Christ-esteem." Why? Because the believer who is occupied with Christ has neither high nor low thoughts of self, but rather has been taken right out of himself. The essence of true Christianity is not to have either high or low thoughts of self, but rather not to be thinking about self at all. What should we do when thoughts of self begin to fill our minds? I suggest that we put them right out of our minds. We can truthfully say that those thoughts come from self, and that self is not the correct "I" to reign in our lives anymore. I do not owe self anything – it no longer has any rights. I recognize that it is an attack of Satan, attempting to use self to make me sin. I simply turn away from it, for I am now "in Christ," and He is to reign in me.

When I took driver education, one of the things they stressed was to aim high in steering. They told us not to look at the front of the car, or at the road immediately in front of us, but rather to have our eyes several hundred feet down the road. Then the car would go in a straight line, take the curves more smoothly, and make for more even driving. The same principle applies in the Christian life. The believer who has his eye on himself will have an "up and down" course, and will not be able to walk an even path. The one who is occupied with Christ and is not concerned about himself will walk a steady path, because his sights are outside of himself. We will deal with some practical points about this in the next section.

We may rest assured on the authority of the Word of God that there is more in Christ to encourage our hearts than there is in ourselves to discourage us. Do we look at ourselves and feel discouraged and depressed? Do we think about how we have failed, the wrong we have done, the qualities we do not have, and so on? Satan will occupy us with ourselves in this way, and worldly wisdom will tell us that we have to believe in ourselves, that we have to think positively, and tell ourselves that we can do it. The point to realize is that Satan wants to occupy us with self, and does not care whether it is in a positive or a negative way. It all amounts to the same thing, and robs us of our joy in Christ. Only the Spirit of God can fill our hearts with the things of Christ, and take us right out of ourselves.

Again the question comes up, "Are we not to recognize the abilities that God has given us, and use them?" Yes indeed, and we find this brought out in Romans 12:3, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Does this verse imply that it is all right to think highly of ourselves, but not too high? No, that is not the meaning of this passage. Rather the thought is that I am to recognize the abilities God has given me, and the work He has given me to do, and I am to do it. We must remember that this verse is in Romans chapter 12, and we have to go through chapters 6, 7 and 8 to get there. When we have understood true Christian position as being dead, buried and risen with Christ, then our talents are brought in, to be used for the glory of God. We are to recognize what God has given us to do, and not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think – not to want to do something for which we are not fitted. Even as Christians, pride is apt to come in, and we may want to do something which God has not given us to do. This exhortation guards against that. Just as every member of the human body has a function, so every member of the body of Christ has a function.

I recognize that some of these considerations are difficult to explain in a totally harmonious way, and we stated at the beginning of this article that some of these things have to be experienced rather than explained. While there is nothing in the Bible contrary to sound reason, there are many things that are beyond reason, because it is a book of God and deals with subjects beyond human understanding. For example, the Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. The mind of man cannot reconcile these things completely, but it is only the foolishness of man's narrow mind that denies one of them in order to emphasize the other. In the same way it is difficult for the natural man to reconcile the recognition of his natural abilities with his total depravity as the result of sin.

To the spiritual mind these seeming contradictions present no difficulty, for "the spiritual discerns all things. (1 Corinthians 2:15 JND). It becomes only another wonderful dimension of the Word God has given to us. In natural things, we must learn the definitions of things before learning the things themselves, while in spiritual things we must often learn the things themselves in communion with the Lord before being able to define them.

Our subject contains some of these things, one of which is illustrated in the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul could speak of himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), and could also say that he was "less than the least of all saints" (Ephesians 3:8). These words were not merely high-sounding rhetoric, for Paul recognized clearly how sinful his natural "self" was. He never forgot that he had persecuted the Church of God before he was saved. On the other hand, he had no difficulty recognizing what grace had worked in his soul, so that he could say of himself, "By the grace of God I am what I am." (1 Corinthians 15:10). As a servant of Christ, he could say, "I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles" (2 Corinthians 11:5), and, "I labored more abundantly than they all" (1 Corinthians 15:10), but then adding, "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15:10). Pride was not connected with it, although the tendency was there, for God sent him a "thorn in the flesh" lest he should be "exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations." (2 Corinthians 12:7). When the objections of some in Corinth forced him to speak of what he had suffered for Christ, he could say, "I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly." (2 Corinthians 11:17). It gave him no pleasure to speak of himself. We ought to be content to be anything or nothing so long as Christ is glorified, and this was Paul's aim. May it be our aim!

Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night:

Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;

Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light:

Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my sickness into Thy health;

Out of my want and into Thy wealth;

Out of my sin and into Thyself:

Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss:

Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;

Into the glorious gain of Thy cross:

Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of earth's sorrows into Thy balm;

Out of life's storms and into Thy calm;

Out of distress to jubilant psalm:

Jesus, I come to Thee.

William T. Sleeper

PRACTICAL EFFECTS IN OUR LIVES

Some of you are probably wondering whether it is really possible to carry all this out practically in our lives, or whether these are all just nice theoretical ideas. Can we hope to live these things out, or were they only for exalted Christians like the Apostle Paul? Do not think for a moment that others have not had the same difficulties. If you knew the agony that others have been through in attempting to put these things into practice, you would realize that it is not easy for self (1 Peter 4:1). Someone has said, "Truth is simple; it is we who are complicated." If you see other Christians who seem to have put these things into practice, it is only because they have come to grips with them in the Lord's presence. Sometimes it has cost many tears. An old poem expresses it well:

Full many a rapturous minstrel

Amid those courts of light

Will say of his sweetest music

"I learned it in the night!"

And many a rolling anthem

That fills the Father's home

Sobbed out its first rehearsal

In the shade of a darkened room.

While these things do not come easily, it should not cause us to give up, as perhaps we are apt to do. If we believe the Word of God, that in the death of Christ we too have died to sin, then there is power now for us, by faith, to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin. We can count on God to be as good as His Word. What we need are willing hearts, for the Bible was written for willing hearts. If there is a true desire in our hearts to be more like Christ, then God will work it in us.

The substance of this pamphlet was originally given in some talks to young people at Lassen Pines, California. In those situations, sometimes we experience such joy in Christ and such happiness in our hearts that we feel that we could never be discouraged again. Then we come down from that "mountaintop" experience only to find that it was not the real world, and that both the world around us and our sinful nature are still the same. Sometimes the problems seem even a little worse, as Satan makes us the object of a special attack because we have been enjoying the Lord so much. Is there an answer to this dilemma? ¢

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