Biblical Self Confidence

Drawing By Adi Age Six

I have never had a self confidence problem because I depend on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct my life through my knowledge of the Bible. I depended on the Holy Spirit to learn the Bible. Ther is no excuse for anyone not to know the Bible in our day. We have it in the written form, audio form and video form. Listen to it while you are working on other things.

Definitions from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

Self-Esteem: Undo PRIDE in oneself (p. 1646)

Pride: Overhigh opinion of oneself; conceit (p. 1428)

Humility: Absence of PRIDE or self-assertion (p. 884)

Mt 22:36-40 -- Jesus gives two great commandments: (1) Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; (2) Love your 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)!

Mt 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.

Mt 20:26,27 -- The great are the servants, not the ones served.

Mt 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.

I Cor 1:18,19 -- Message of the cross (denial of self) is foolishness to those perishing (i.e., to the psychological self-worshipers).

I Cor 4:3-5 -- Objective judgments are ours to make, but those regarding overall worth or esteem belong to the Lord.

I 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.

I 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; I 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.

I 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.

I Pet 5:5b-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.

Js 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.

I 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.
As Christian wives, care giviers for children, the sick and the old plus working outside the home we do not need confidence to get us through all this. We need the Lord. We don't need self confidence in ourselves we need complete confidence in the Lord. We can do nothing on our own and until we realize this we will always fall short of our goals.

In the month of September I have been working on the character trait of being dependable. I have always tried to do my best at things but I failed to do some of my household chores and other things. Anything I had to leave home to do I really don't want to do. The month of September has been a challenge for me. I have been more places this month than I have been in a year. It's been very hard on me physically. I have really had to pray a lot more. We are to have God confidence not self confidence.

•Psalm 118:8 "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."


•Proverbs 3:26 "For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken."

•Proverbs 14:26 "In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge."

•Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

•1 John 2:28 "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."

•1 John 5:14 "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:"

In the book of Ephesians Chapter 6 verses 11-18 we read of the armour of God that a Christian should always find himself clothed in. Prior to these instructions, we read in verse 10 the following words: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."

My prayer for each of you who think you need more self confidence is to forget about self confidence and focus on God confidence. It will never fell you. Always remember what you are in Christ. You are a child of the king. That makes you royalty. We are all members of the royal family of God. My motto is that I can do all things through Christ Jesus who gives me strength. You can too. Doylene