Welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer.
Today’s study is a lesson on Proper Self Confidence and Esteem; so grab your Bible, a notebook your favorite Cuppa and join me as we look at what the Bible says about this important topic.
This study is an answer to a question I received from KT, one of my YouTube subscribers. So KT, I hope this answers your question and that it will also help others who are following along.
When we hear the words “confidence” and “esteem” they are usually preceded by the prefix SELF: Self-confidence and Self-esteem.
SELF:
Of course SELF would refer to our entire person; spirit, soul and body as described in 1 Thessalonians 5:23
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you use www.blueletterbible.com to search for ‘self’, you will find it only 6 times in your King James Bible.
The first and only Old Testament reference is Exodus 32:13 which refers to the LORD GOD, "…thou swarest by thine own self”…
The first New Testament reference is John 5:30 where Jesus Christ says “I can of mine own self do nothing:…" meaning He was only saying and doing exactly what the Father wanted Him to.
So far, ‘self’ only refers to GOD. Let’s see what our Apostle Paul says about ‘self’.
Paul was being judged by the carnal Corinthians regarding his ministry and his authority in the church.
He said in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the LORD. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Paul’s attitude about judging self should be our attitude WHEN IT COMES TO MINISTRY. God is the judge of our ministry. In fact, we cannot even be the judge of our own ministry! We will be judged according to the word of God!
The word of God is our judge.
However, don’t make the mistake of not judging anything. There are other passages that indicate that we are to judge others… for their benefit!…
For their edification and not their destruction (2 Corinthians 10:8 and 13:10).
What it boils down to concerning judging ourselves and others is letting the word of God to be our standard in faith and practice.
Let’s look at another Pauline use of ‘self’ in the little letter to Philemon. It has something very important to teach us about ‘self’.
Philemon 19 ….”thou owest to me even thine own self besides.”
Philemon is an interesting letter. It is situated at the end of Paul’s writings because it condenses the doctrine of his previous letters (Romans to Titus) in the practical application of a true historical case of a runaway slave. Read Philemon in light of the abiding doctrines of the church; Faith, Hope and Charity.
Verse 19 of Philemon demonstrates how we owe our own self (spirit, soul and body) to Jesus Christ. Paul states that so clearly in Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Again, by using your www.blueletterbible.com, look up the plural of self, “selves”, which is also found in 6 verses.
In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, Paul refers to those from the churches of Macedonia when he says,
2 Corinthians 8:5 ….but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
According to the word of God, our ‘self’ is who we are. As Christians and believers, we owe our SELF to the Lord. This is contrary to what the world teaches about self.
How about ESTEEM?
Who and what should we ESTEEM? Let’s see what the word has to say about this.
The word esteem is found 5 times in our King James Bible; and there are 2 other forms of the word:
- Esteemed
- Esteemeth
If you do the search for yourself, you will find it 20 times.
Not once in the Bible do you find a person esteeming themselves! Esteem is something done towards another person, and in some verses it is the lack of esteem that is emphasized.
We see Israel “lightly esteeming” God in Deuteronomy 32:15; and we see Israel fail to esteem Jesus in that prophecy of his death on the cross in Isaiah 53:3.
Hear what Jesus says about esteem,
Luke 16:15 “…that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God…”
The apostle Paul tells us,
Philippians 2:3 “…in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
This verse does imply self-esteem, but it reminds us to keep our self esteem LOW. Again, this is the opposite of what the world teaches.
In 1 Thessalonians we are told to VERY HIGHLY ESTEEM some in the church? Let’s see who.
Vs. 12-13 “…them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and ADMONISH YOU; …. For their work’s sake…”
Their work’s sake is the edification, or the building up of, the church which is the body of Christ.
Moving on to Confidence.
Let’s allow the Bible to define confidence for us.
The oldest reference is Job 31:24 If I have made gold my hope, Or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
Psalm 118:8-9 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man. 9 It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes.
We see that confidence means to hope in or to trust in.
Should we put confidence in our self? In man? Should we trust in self?
Not according to Scripture!
Philippians 3:3 Paul says “…we… have no confidence in the flesh.”
And in Romans 7:18 he says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:…
And he tells us in Galatians 5:17 “… the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other…”
So, again, as Christians, we have no reason to be SELF CONFIDENT, but rather we are to rely on God and on His word. That should give us STRONG CONFIDENCE as the word says,
Proverbs 14:26 “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence:…”
Thanks for stopping by. Next week I will begin the series: When God speaks to Women, where we will look at every occurrence in scripture where God directly addresses women. I hope to see you then.
The material covered in this Blog can be watched on this YouTube video:
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