Bible Verses on Self-Image, Self-Esteem, Self-Love, etc
February 14th, 2007 at 9:05 pm (Psychobabble)
I found the following on a website a few years ago. Good, concise commentary on a plethora of verses. Make sure you hover over the Bible verses so you can read them, then get the commentary:
The attached Bible verse explanations (New Testament and Old Testament) detail how God views us and how we should view ourselves. Taken in proper context, the attached Biblical references clearly indicate that there is no biblical basis for self-esteem, self-love, self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-forgiveness, self-assertion, “proper” self-image, self-actualization, or any of the other selfisms advocated by the worldly system of psychology. The Bible’s answer for our emotional “problems”: turn from self to Christ (and His all-sufficient Word).
NEW TESTAMENT VERSES
Matthew 22:36-40- Jesus gives two great commandments: (1) Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; (2) Love our neighbor as yourself — there is no third command to love yourself. Jesus is saying, “as you already love yourself” — “as” is used in the same way in Eph 5:25,28,33 indicating a state of current existence, not a command. Jesus knows we already love ourselves and thereby commands us to love others with this same commitment.
Lk 10:25-37- Example given by Jesus to illustrate the “love neighbor as yourself” command, presents a story of self-sacrifice (not self-love) towards an object of hate (a Samaritan)!
Matthew 16:24,25- Deny self, i.e., say no to self; not told to self-affirm, self-gratify, or self-actualize.
Lk 9:23- Deny self, i.e., put self to death, daily; not told to self-affirm, self-gratify, or self-actualize.
Matthew 20:26,27- The great are the servants, not the ones served.
Matthew 23:11,12- The great are the servants; the humble will be exalted.
Lk 22:24-27- The servant is the greatest, not the proud.
Lk 14:26- Cannot be a disciple of Jesus, unless deny even yourself.
2 Tim 3:2-5- “Lovers of Self” listed with other “detestable” sins such as slanderers, the treacherous, abusive, proud, conceited; therefore, high self-esteem/pride is a sin!
Jn 12:25- Lover of one’s own life (self) will lose eternal life.
Jn 13:16,17- Humble service is a command.
Jn 15:5- Apart from God, i.e., lover of self vs. lover of God, you can do nothing.
1 Cor 1:18,19- Message of the cross (denial of self) is foolishness to those perishing (i.e., to the psychological self-worshipers).
1 Cor 4:3-5- Objective judgments are ours to make, but those regarding overall worth or esteem belong to the Lord.
1 Cor 13:2- Self-esteem advocates teach we must be of value to ourselves in order to be able to love others, but God tells us that we are nothing, unless and until we love others.
1 Cor 13:4,5- Definitions of what love is not — not envy, not boasting, not proud, and not self-seeking.
2 Cor 3:5- No competence in ourselves (no pride), but only from God.
2 Cor 5:15- Live for Christ, via humble service, not for yourself.
2 Cor 10:12,18- Look to Christ for comparison, not to yourself; i.e., no self-esteem gospel.
Eph 3:8; 1 Tim 1:15; Rom 7:24- Sounds as if Paul has a terrible self-esteem problem! Paul recognizes his rotten condition, to be resolved only through the gospel of the cross, which is a “humble servant” attitude.
Rom 12:3b — Don’t think of yourself too highly, but with sober judgment — notice that Paul makes no mention of the possibility of one under-valuing himself.
Gal 6:3,4- Sober evaluation should be made not on the basis of how one is doing in comparison with others, but by comparing oneself with Scriptural standards, and of course, Scriptural standards stress humility and putting self
to death (denial of self), not boosting one’s self-esteem.
1 Cor 10:24- Nobody should ever seek his own good, but the good of others.
Eph 5:21- Submit to others for Christ’s sake: i.e., humble submission, not pride.
2 Cor 11:30- If boast in anything, boast in weakness!
Phil 2:3- Do not act out of self-concerns, but for others, and then in humility.
Heb 13:17- Submit to your spiritual leaders, not your self-desires.
1 Pet 5:5-7- Be humble toward others because God opposes the proud.
Col 3:12- Christians should clothe themselves in humility.
Eph 4:2- We are commanded to be completely humble and gentle.
James 4:10- Humility leads to esteem — esteem from the Lord.
Lk 6:31- The golden rule: Jesus could confidently make this statement because He knew we already loved ourselves; i.e., if hating ourselves was our natural condition (as the “self-esteemers” tell us), then it would make us happy to be treated badly (as it would confirm our hateful feelings of ourselves), and Jesus would, thereby, be telling us to treat others with the same contempt and loathing that we desire for ourselves.
Lk 6:32- The fact that Jesus refers to “sinners” (i.e., enemies of God) as practicing the, “I’ll love you if you love me first,” philosophy, the self-esteem teaching that, “You have to love yourself before you are able to love others,” must, thereby, also be rejected as being ungodly.
1 Jn 2:16,17- Man’s “boasting of what he has and does” (i.e., self-esteem/pride) is not the will of God, but is “of the world.”
Phil 2:5-8- One’s “attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus” — i.e., “made Himself nothing,” “taking the form of a servant,” “humbled Himself,” “became obedient to death.” In general, one should have an attitude of a humble
servant-loving, self-sacrificing, compassionate, submissive, obedient, courageous, and holy — i.e., no “selfisms” at all, only “otherisms”!
2 Cor 12:6,7- Even though Paul would have possibly been warranted in having a so-called “healthy” self-esteem, he refused to boast; God, also, didn’t want Paul to have high self-esteem — i.e., conceit.
OLD TESTAMENT VERSES
Gen 18:27- Abraham, a believer at this time, has a proper view of self before God — “I am nothing but dust and ashes.”
Exo 3:11,12- God didn’t build up Moses’ self-esteem, but only promised to be with him.
Jdg 6:14-16- God didn’t build up Gideon’s self-esteem, but only promised to be with him.
Jdg 7:2- God reduced Gideon’s forces to such a ridiculously low level that they would have to exalt God, not self, when victory came.
Job 1:8b — Job’s true status, in which he could “rightfully” boast (”a man who fears God and shuns evil”).
Job 25:5,6- God views man as a maggot and worm — hardly a “high self-esteem” teaching.
Job 42:6- Proper attitude toward sin is self-despising and repentance.
Prov 22:4- Humility and fear of the Lord bring honor and life.
Prov 16:5,18,19- Pride leads to destruction; better to be lowly in spirit.
Prov 18:12- Downfall of man is pride; humility required for esteem and honor.
Deut 10:12- God requires a humble walk, and love and service to Him.
Deut 8:17,18- Everything comes from the Lord; therefore, have no pride.
Deut 6:4-9- Have a God-centered orientation, not self-centered.
Mic 6:8- God requires a humble walk.
Psa 62:9- On God’s balance scale, man weighs less than nothing, i.e., negative weight or worth.
Ezekiel 6:9 Ezekiel 20:43 Ezekiel 36:31- Sin brings self-loathing in one’s “own sight” (KJV) (i.e., self-image); therefore, a “proper” self-image in response to sin is a low one (i.e., low self-esteem), not self-acceptance or self-love.
Isa 41:24 Isa 2:22- What is man’s truth worth — “less than nothing;” “of no account.”
Isa 47:8,10,11- Pride/high self-esteem leads to disaster and calamity.
Jer 1:6-9- God didn’t build up Jeremiah’s self-esteem, but promised to be with him and put words in his mouth.
Psa 115:1- Don’t seek glory for self, but for the glory of the Lord.
Psa 36:2- The man who flatters himself, i.e., high self-esteem, is unable to even detect his own sin, let alone hate it.
Psa 34:18- The Lord works in the lives of the humble, not those with high self-esteem.
Psa 51:17- True worship is with humility, not good self-image.
Psa 101:5b — God will not tolerate the proud; i.e., those with high self-esteem.
Isa 6:5- Faced with God’s holiness, Isaiah debases self, not exalts self.
Prov 15:33- Humility before honor.
Prov 29:23- Pride, i.e., self-esteem, only lowers man, while humility gains honor.
Prov 6:16-19- Haughty eyes, i.e., a proud look, listed along with seven other sins that are detestable to the Lord.
Prov 8:13b — The Lord hates pride.
Prov 11:2- With pride comes disgrace, while wisdom comes with humility.
Prov 13:10- Pride breeds quarrels.
Prov 21:4- Pride is a trait of the wicked, and is sin.
Prov 25:27- Not honorable to seek one’s own honor.
1 Kings 3:5-9- Solomon’s humble request was for discernment and wisdom (not high self-esteem), which God honored with wisdom and riches and God-esteem.
Prov 26:12- More hope for a fool than a man with high self-esteem, i.e., a man
wise in his own eyes.
Prov 27:2- Don’t praise yourself, i.e., high self-esteem, let others instead.
Prov 28:26- Those with good self-esteem are trusting in themselves, and therefore, are fools.
Psa 31:23- The Lord will pay back the proud, in full.
Psa 18:27- The Lord saves the humble, but brings low the proud.
Psa 138:6- The Lord looks favorably on the humble, and unfavorably on the proud.
Job 40:4- Job recognizes he has no self-worth in God’s sight.
Jer 9:23,24- Don’t let your attributes be the source of your glorifying, or you have chosen the wrong object for your boasting — the object should be God! Whatever we have is from God, not of our own doing, so our boasts should be
towards Him; praise the Lord, not self.
Jer 17:7,8- A happy and worry-free man is one who places his confidence in the Lord, not in himself; i.e., no self-confidence teaching, but God-confidence instead!
Isa 66:2- God-esteem (the only kind that counts) goes to the meek, humble, and God-fearing.
Psa 139:13-15- The Psalmist uses God’s wonderful creation (man) to exalt God (the Creator), not self (the creation).
KAI said,
June 18, 2007 at 2:16 pm
comment about self.
so if self is wrong, do you practice what you preach? do you deny yourself or are you an expert in the law. I bet you have a big house & a fancy car catering for yourSELF.
if a person loses a job how can he get hired if he has an I problem? employers do not hire candidate with an I problem & how does he presents himself in front of interviewers timid & doubtful? I think you are a pastor who does not go to work or not experienced a job loss.
HOW DID CHRIST CONFRONT THE pharisees, timid & scared or did christ FLIP FLOPPED?
the self is also a PERSON that is why the bible uses also I, YOU, HE, SHE,
why did christ use I when he told peter …’peter it is I!’ even christ himself USED THE WORD I!!!
There are plenty of people like you in the bible, writing articles yet do not practice what they preach.
i am not surprised if you do not answer this question or comment bec. YOU ARE PROTECTING your SELF!
BY THE WAY, THE REASON WHY CHRISTIANS lose & miss the blessings is bec of people like you who are ‘quick to look for something to accuse.’ the pharisees did that to the blind man. THEY (persons) said that the reason for the physical blindness is bec. of sin & turned to christ it is unlawful to heal on the sabbath.
christ also warned US (person) to look out for the ‘YEAST OF THE PHARISEES & THE EXPERTS IN THE LAW.’ they were the once who ’spread’ their religion putting people in bondage, putting weight on their shoulders & stumbling them.
If you say that self is wrong, then WHAT ARE YOU a sin? even a child of god is a person.
mt 23:15 …you go land & sea to make a convert, & when he becomes one you make him (person) twice as hell as you are.
kaishinden79 said,
June 25, 2007 at 4:51 pm
So, have you people who ARE EXPERTS IN THE LAW, practiced what you PREACH in DENYING YOURSELVES?! WHAT ABOUT RUNNING ANOTHER MILE FOR YOUR BRETHREN? WHAT ABOUT GIVING ALL YOUR RICHES & WORLDLY MATERIAL TO THE POOR - IS NOT THAT ‘DENYING’ YOURSELVES?
WHAT YOU ARE ‘A SELF-RIGHTEOUS PHARISEES’ ‘WHO ARE CONFIDENT’ OF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT YOU LOOK DOWN ON OTHERS & YOU DO NOT PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH UNTO OTHERS! AS USUAL NO ANSWER TO THIS COMMENT.
kaishinden79 said,
June 25, 2007 at 5:48 pm
comment #3
If Self is not biblical & it is a sin, THEN WHY DID christ HIMSELF SPOKE UP & rebuke the Pharisees & the EXPERTS IN THE LAW WHEN THEY (PHARISEES & EXPERTS IN THE LAW) WERE WALKING ALL OVER THE PEOPLE. THEY WERE EXPLOITING, PERVERTING THE GOSPEL THAT PUT PEOPLE IN BONDAGE & A LOT OF WEIGHT ON PEOPLE’S SHOULDERS! THE PHARISEES THOUGHT THAT THEY CAN DO THE SAME MANIPULATIVE TACTIC ON CHRIST. CHRIST DID NOT SUBMIT OR SERVE TO THE RELIGIOUS ABUSES & RELIGIOUS MANIPULATIONS OF THE PHARISEES & THE EXPERTS IN THE LAW. CHRIST DID NOT SUBMIT TO THE SO-CALLED ‘SERVANTHOOD’ DESCRIBED BY THE PHARISEES!
YOU ARE DOING THE SAME RELIGIOUS MANIPULATIVE TACTIC CALLING IT SUBMISSION OR SERVANTHOOD BUT YOU WANT TO LOOK GOOD FOR CHRIST BY ‘LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO ACCUSE!’ THAT IS WHY THERE ARE 4 PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE THE PHARISEE, EXPERTS IN THE LAW, HYPOCRITES & PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LOOK FOR SOMETHING TO ACCUSE. THAT IS WHY CHRIST WAS ANGRY AND REBUKED THE PHARISEES FOR THEIR ARROGANCE!
YOUR TEACHINGS ARE ABSOLUTE RELIGION YET YOU CANNOT & DO NOT PRACTICE THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION YOU INPOSE ON OTHERS!!!!!
Alvin said,
October 29, 2007 at 1:27 pm
This whole thing bums me out. Denial of the self is not the same as rejecting the self. This is confused logic and very improperly interpreted from Scripture. On the contrary, the one who rejects himself will be engrossed with himself. Something I fear could be a problem someday with people who write things like this.
Why do people write things like this? What can they gain? If you only love your neighbors as much as yourself as the interpreted standard, then you might as well do them a favor and beat the worth out of them as well. That way, you can save them the trouble of having to do it when they find Christ. I’m sure that will make them want to sign up.
Vanity.
tramsek said,
October 29, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Hi Alvin. I’m afraid I don’t understand your comment. What is your understanding of the difference between ‘denial of the self’ and ‘rejecting the self’? In what ways will the one who rejects himself be engrossed with himself?
As for the motive for me posting this, it was to glorify God by encouraging Christians to humility, to think more highly of others than themselves, to die to themselves, and to deny themselves. The gain I was looking for is nothing personal, but rather that Christians may be conformed to the image of Jesus, who gave up his own life for God’s glory and our good.
As for the proper understanding of ‘loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself’, the idea behind this is that you already love yourself, that is you care for yourself. You already feed your self, groom yourself, clothe yourself, etc. Jesus is not encouraging us to love ourselves more, He is saying love your neighbor the way you already love yourself. The same care and effort that you put into caring for yourself, do that for your neighbor. So feed, groom and clothe your neighbor with as much care as you already do for yourself (btw, your neighbors include your enemies). Notice that Jesus went on to say that He had just given them two commands 1) Love God and 2) love your neighbor. He didn’t say three commands (which the pop psychologists would have us believe) 1) Love God 2) love neighbor and 3) love self.
Hope that helps.
Includes the following Audio Comment
Alvin said,
October 29, 2007 at 10:29 pm
You don’t understand my comment? Don’t you realize how your blog comes across to people? To a new reader (God forbid, an unbeliever) you can so easily sound like a self righteous, insensitive man telling people that even something as important as self-forgiveness should never be an issue. And I am sure that is not your intention, right? You deserve the benefit of the doubt. I mean, you do know the Bible’s answer for emotional problems also includes “weep[ing] with those who weep”, right? Or do you just hand bi-polar depressives a New Testament and say “I’ll pray for you”? This cannot be your way, right! Anyway, I admit I may sound frustrated, but I am just so saddened that this stuff still goes on because people like you just don’t seem to see how you place heavy burdens on mens backs and don’t lift a finger to help carry them. I have to clean up your messes every time I share the gospel, it seems. And you should not criticize the healing arts too much either (pop-psychology, indeed!). Had we been doing our job, affirming and admonishing in true love instead of neglecting emotions for insensitive, stoic legalism, they wouldn’t have so many spiritually disillusioned people filling their offices. Better yet, money wasted on those “quacks” could be better spent to build larger buildings further away from the poor in wealthier, more potentially tithing neighborhoods! I am not saying you don’t practice what you preach like that other guy (I don’t know you enough to say something that mean), but in my heart I have to say I wonder that you have either A) never experienced a true, deep hurt or issue of emotional pain or B) you have and you have repressed it with some kind of “holy denial” and shoved it down to places you don’t talk about at Bible study. Either way, this kind of attitude hurts people, brother. It sounds unloving to the world. It leaves them with a bad taste in their mouths for God. And if you’re going to use the privilege of the internet to broadcast your views, then at least try to have the sense to consider the condition of your readers and hearers and respect their stories. No offense… you do know the words but I don’t think you know the music; you must not know that love can be murdered by the truth.
tramsek said,
October 30, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Alvin,
First off, the Bible is my sole authority in life and practice. So regarding the “importance of self-forgiveness”, the Bible never talks about a person forgiving themselves. God is the one who forgives us, we should forgive others who sin against us, but nowhere will you find the Bible proclaiming that we need to forgive ourselves. I think we need to ACCEPT God’s forgiveness of our sins. But to forgive ourselves is a humanistic concept that started with the atheistic psychologists like Fromm, Rogers, etc. Since they didn’t believe in a God, but they saw the reality of guilt, they needed some way to absolve themselves of the guilt and thus took the place of God in ‘forgiving’ self. When Christians sin and we harbor guilt, we need to repent and accept God’s forgiveness at the cross.
Secondly, I highly believe Christians need to weep with those who weep. We need to love people in TRUTH. That includes standing and walking with those whom we love. It also means to confront their misunderstanding of the Scripture and hopefully be a used as a tool by the Holy Spirit to renew their minds. I totally agree that we should not neglect the emotions for legalism. But what in the blog post is legalistic, exactly? Rightly dividing the word of truth is not legalism. Nor is pointing folks to the all-sufficient God who is able to heal all our iniquities.
As for building larger buildings, I hope you can see from my posts, that we actually meet with the church from house to house (like you). As for experiencing an emotional pain, I’ve had my share and part of overcoming it is to not dwell in it. To set your mind on things above, not on the things of this world is part of how God transforms you. You’re right that I may not understand how true, biblical love can be murdered by God’s truth. Would you care to explain?
Alvin, I’m not sure where you’re at with psychology and Christian psychology, but hopefully some of the posts on my blog will be helpful to you. Check out the posts between January 12th and February 22nd. These include some really good videos.
May the Lord bless you as you seek His kingdom and His righteousness first.
Tony
Includes the following Audio Comment
Alvin said,
October 31, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Jeremiah 6:14 & 15
They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD.
How can Love be murdered by the truth? In the same way I could give you a powerful pill for the wrong illness or offer you the right pill (in some situations, shove it down your throat) without water. You MAY still get the help you need clinically, but you may also not and even be worse off, have unnecessary side effects and detest the experience so much that you may even decide next time to choose sickness over health! Might this be a good analogy for some of those who have walked away from us back to the world? For some reason, once many Christians get rescued, they too easily forget what it was like to be drowning and end up “shooting the wounded”. I am not sure how or why this happens, but my guess is it is because we do not really understand we are being saved from.
And for the record, this explanation is not endorsing being liberal or watering things down to save souls. Sin is sin, but sinners are to be loved regardless. Rather, it’s meant to admonish us to be discerningly considerate of our hearers when we minister and beyond. It is toward living the balanced life between the “bone” of substance (the Word) and “flesh” of sensitivity (The Spirit), if you will. This is better termed by Jesus as “Spirit and Truth”.
And as far as scripture goes, Just because “it is written”, does not mean it is applicable to each situation blindly. Water is a good thing, but it can quench, clean or drown. It all depends on how you use it. Outside of the enlightenment of the Spirit of God (not the “spirit of education”, mind you), the Word can be misused and can even be misleading to some. If this were not true then how did Satan use scripture to tempt Jesus? How did the Pharisees get into so much trouble with Jesus for “diligently searching the scriptures” but not finding him? How did the Confederate South use scripture to justify enslaving and discriminating against the African people? I could go on. No, it is the Spirit that brings the true power to God’s word by enlightening us to its intended meaning for the intended situation and our job is to discern and trust that. If we can humble ourselves and live this way, then we may see the world-weathered sin laden prodigals return to a house of Love.
This also leads me to respond to another one of your statements above. I have heard believers call Scripture their sole authority before. My sole authority is God. The only time the “Word” is my authority is when it is Jesus… THE Word. But the Bible itself is the collection of holy books that simply reveal His authority in a written form, translated into our language. It is no more an authority in itself than a Law book is the Law in itself. And yes, it is truly empowered against evil and enlightened to the faithful, but mystically so, and by God only. Apart from God, words are just words, but thanks to God, His words written ARE the Bible, God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. But the Bible requires Him to enlighten it for me to use it properly. My Bible tells me people need to be saved, but it does NOT tell me if my neighbor is saved. No, it is the Holy Spirit who does this through either enlightening specific scripture or giving me some experience.
In other words, the only purpose for the Bible to me is that humanity would know its Author.
And as far as dwelling in issues of pain, I agree with you that it is not good to wallow in things unnecessarily, but before you judge who may be doing that or not, consider Job or Jeremiah ( Lamentations 3:26-30 as an example). Sometimes God just lays heavy things on people. Again, we must seek the guidance of the Spirit to be sensitive to that. Hope that helps some.
But I feel now that our biggest issues here in this discussion may be best explained by a problem of semantics, and mainly on two subjects. First, I will explain this with “Self-acceptance”. Accepting oneself in humanistic terms means to find your worth within yourself and is is often called “self esteem”. I think we agree on this. And in this case, for the believer in Christ (as I also think we both would agree) this is wrong thinking because it looks to the self, or to the creature for worth rather than to the Creator, or beyond the self. Our worth, rather our identity is to be in Christ alone. More like saying it is not “who” we are, but “whose” we are. Ok. Settled. Now, our problem is that the term ” self acceptance” has mistakingly (in my opinion) become synonymous with “self-esteem”. Here, in a possible dual meaning may lie our trouble. Because for the Christian, accepting oneself can also be defined as choosing to accept all of what God has made in you and put you through (spiritually, physically, circumstantially, etc) while working to change for the good what actually can be changed by the Spirit of God. In other words, self-acceptance in scripture may be better referred to as contentment.
Second, “self-forgiveness” obviously falls under this same confusion as the term can have a dual meaning as well, a possibility which I agree you have properly referred to above. Because while it is true that humanistic thought can steal its glory by using the term to define an introspective act of behavioral conditioning with no “god” required, forgiveness in itself is nothing BUT God! It has no true power outside of Him. Survival of the fittest does not “forgive”, it selfishly eliminates or consumes. You would better call it “Self-forgetting”. Instead, forgiving oneself truly is the act of receiving the forgiveness God does impart to us.
But choosing to forgive myself is no sin, Tony. It is only a joining with God in agreement of my absolution, disarming shameful regret and fulfilling the great scripture “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Though this may not be the best term to describe this act because of atheistic psychologists like Fromm, Rogers, etc , hopefully it is easy to see how easy it is for us as Christians to include the word “self” in it. We need to somehow redeem this term.
Hopefully this has helped some to better explain my concerns. And as far as psychology and Christian psychology go, I can say this: probing of the mind may be able to reveal some core issues and even stabilize in a crisis, like putting a psychological or even mental “cast” over a broken “bone”, but only the Spirit of God heals; Psychology alone can ultimately do nothing.
May God forgive me if I have sinned against you. I do not claim to be a great writer and I hope I have not made things worse in my attempts to convey my feelings on these matters. And likewise, may the Lord also bless you and keep you as you seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first.
Alvin
tramsek said,
December 21, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Hi Alvin,
I think I understand now what you mean by “love can be murdered by the truth”. Good point.
I also agree with your point that the Word can be misused. It is the Holy Spirit that enlightens our minds to the truth of the Bible.
As for the authority of the Bible, since it is God’s Word, it has His authority. He never pits Himself against His Word. God’s Word is an extension of Himself. It is not merely a normal book, like a book of law. It is living and active, pure and tested, God-breathed, sharper than any two edged sword. The Bible is innately different than all other books.
As for the terms self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. It seems you understand the semantical problems related to those phrases. Rather than trying to redeem those man made phrases, I suggest we use biblical terms like you suggested. I.e. contentment instead of self-acceptance and ‘receiving God’s forgiveness’ instead of self-forgiveness. I’m afraid all the self-ad nauseum talk is just too tightly connected in most minds to humanistic psychobabble.
Sorry for the belated reply. Thank you for your interaction and the joy of seeing iron sharpening iron in our discussion. By the way, did you get to watch or read any of the psychobabble related stuff on my blog?
May the Lord bless you as you seek to serve Him first,
Tony
Anonymous said,
March 28, 2008 at 3:51 am
thank you alvin & tony both…learned a lot from your discussion.
Anonymous said,
July 26, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Sounds like what you’re saying is that we should basically think of ourselves as CRAP! I can tell you that a low self-esteem can be just as damaging as a high one.