SELF-ESTEEM IN ITS HEALTHY FORM IS UNDERMINED BY CHRIST

Feeling good about yourself and liking yourself. If you don’t like yourself you can’t like other people either. You will be afraid they will not like you either or notice what it is that you don't like about yourself . Self-esteem is a sin in the Bible, God’s word, for it commands that you should look up to everybody else as better than yourself (Philippians 2:3). So you shouldn’t think you are as good as anybody else or let anybody else think they are good. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught that if you love those who love you then you deserve no praise for that for even evil people love those who care about and for them (Matthew 5:46-48). If this love deserves no reward as Christ says then how much less of a reward one must deserve for loving oneself? Jesus says evil people get no reward for loving their families and friends. He really hates evil people when he says that you should get no reward even if you are good person and care for your family and friends simply because they care for theirs too. It is like saying that people should be condemned for reading the Koran just because it is the "bad Muslim's" book!
 
Jesus' message is that if we look after our health it is to be solely so that we can help others and not burden them. Self-love then is no good. This tells us that if we do good for ourselves we must do it only for others and it must have nothing to do with looking for anything from them. You must serve them even if they hate you and plot against you.
 
The Bible also says that it is a sin to think you know anything without loving God (1 Corinthians 8:1-3). Only true Christians love God according to the Bible for they are born again so nothing anybody says who is not a Christian is to be valued. You need God to know things, for you are good for nothing.
 
Self-esteem makes a person rejoice in making others happy for he or she wants to share and find his or her happiness through others. To do this properly it is necessary to avoid anti-social acts like stealing and slandering and lying.
 
Christianity says we must do good for others just because it benefits God. It says that as we are not 100% sure God exists, we must have the attitude, "Hypothetically if God does not exist we must do it just because it benefits others". If the faith really believes all that then it is a sin to say you were glad you did the good because you enjoyed it.
 
Luke 17:7-10 (ESV) - 7 Jesus said, "Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
 
That says it all! It proves that if Jesus said love your neighbour as yourself he meant do good actions and it is not about feeling good or loving. In fact he commanded that you must feel you are no good.



SEARCH EXCATHOLIC.NET

No Copyright