Christ Eteem Part 2 : Paul’s perspective.

By Todd Tillinghast 

“The humble man because he sees himself as nothing can see other things as they are.”  Iris Murdoch

“To me who am less than the least of the saints.”  Ephesians 3:8

Now this is a very telling phrase.  Here we have a rare opportunity as we see Paul addressing himself to catch a glimpse of Paul’s personality by seeing the way he thought of himself and the terminology that he used to describe himself. A quick read through the salutations of all of his epistles reveals that Paul referred to himself in different ways at different times. 

He is known to call himself a:

-        Bondservant

-        A prisoner of Christ

-        An Apostle

-        A Pharisee of Pharisees

-        One abnormally born

-        A saint

-        Chief of sinners

-        A minister

-        The apostle to the gentiles

-        The least of the apostles

-        And here as less than the least of all the saints.

When we look at this list of  titles we may get the sense that maybe Paul had an identity crisis. These are not just role distinctions like someone saying I’m a dad an employee and a husband. These are different ways in which he referred to himself and are indicative of how he saw himself. 

Now my first gut reaction when I see or hear someone refer to themselves like this is to be skeptical.  In fact, to me it smacks of false humility. 

“Well I am the least of the least and I feel pretty good about that, why don’t you tell me how wonderful I am.” 

To be honest with you few things irritate me more than false humility.  Phrases like:

-        “Oh It wasn’t me it was all God” or

-        “I didn’t have anything to do with it”

-        Or “I’m just trying to serve”

I think we all know that most of the time when we or someone else say things like this that in actuality the opposite is true.  We are essentially saying that we want people to recognize us for being so insignificant.  “Pat us on the back and show us how proud you are of our humility please.”  

I have always thought that it’s just better to demonstrate humility not go overboard in trying to convince everybody how humble you are with your words.  Just think about this phrase from our modern understanding it’s like an oxymoron.  If you are the least of the least then doesn’t that actually mean that you are the best of the least?  “I’m a bigger servant than you are nah ,nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.” 

Well that certainly may be the feeling we get when we look at this through modern lenses but what is Paul really saying here? 

As we return to Paul’s words in Ephesians chapter three we are reminded that there is a purpose in his appellations. There were other times when Paul called himself an Apostle because he needed to stand in a place where he needed to correct such as with the Corinthians and then there were other times when he called himself a bondservant as that was what was required to accomplish his purposes of exalting Christ. 

There was even a time in Philippians: 3:4-6 that Paul proceeds to give quite a lengthy resume of all the things that he had done. He must have known that he would be criticized for bragging here but he said it anyway because his purpose in the end was to magnify Christ.  In fact in 2^nd Cor 12:11 we see that Paul is fully aware of the fact that he is boasting and says “I am fool for boasting.”  The point is that there were people who thought he was braggadocios and he knew it and there were people who criticized him and made fun of his speaking abilities (2^nd Cor 10:10).  He also had a reputation and was feared by many as “the Christian killer”, but I believe that his utilitarian use of different appellations is indicative of the fact that his titles and what he thought about himself (and subsequently what others thought about him) were not that important to him.  What was important were that his life, words and deeds magnified Christ. 

Paul wasn’t being disingenuous when he called himself “less than the least of the saints.”  He wasn’t being theatrical or practicing false humility.  I love what Calvin remarks here about Paul “This is no hypocritical declaration. Most men are ready enough to make professions of feigned humility, while their minds are swelled with pride, and in words to acknowledge themselves inferior to every one else, while they wish to be regarded with the highest esteem, and think themselves entitled to the highest honor. Paul is perfectly sincere in admitting his unworthiness; nay, at other times he speaks of himself in far more degrading language.” 

The next part of the verse helps us see what Paul understood, that he was nothing without God’s grace. It was God’s grace that was given to him to be what he was and to do what he could do.  Paul understood that he was nothing without God’s grace and if that was true for Paul as an Apostle then it is certainly true of us. 

We don’t have to compete to see who is the least or the best because the reality is that we are all nothing without His grace.  Like Paul we are all the least.  He was simply verbalizing what we should all embrace and believe and understand about ourselves not for the purpose of trying to prove to everyone how humble we are or to try to be superior in our humility but because it is the truth. 

We are so afraid to say things like this today because it would be a terrible blow to our self esteem. But I don’t believe that we will truly ever be completely free and have the healthy self esteem we are supposed to have until we understand that we are nothing without God’s grace and that we are only something because of God’s grace.  It’s not self esteem that we need but God’s grace that forms our identity.  I believe Paul’s lesson here is that in a very real sense we can come to the highest and healthiest level of self esteem when we can say I am the least and be ok with it. 

The problem with false humility is not primarily what we say but what we believe. If we say we are the least but we really don’t believe it or we are saying it just to get people’s accolades or to manipulate them then it is false humility and it is hypocrisy. But if we truly believe the truth which is that you and I and the apostle Paul and Billy Graham, never were and never will be anything without the grace of God and you say that then you aren’t being disingenuous. 

The question first for you and I is “what do I believe about myself? 

I am becoming more and more convinced that the road to real freedom is not through building up my self esteem but through emptying me of my self and esteeming Christ in me.  I’m not there yet.  I just started on the long journey but I believe there is light at the other end of the tunnel.  Please pray for me.    

Christ Esteem, “who do you think you are?” part 1: Christ's perspective

There seems to be two prevailing streams of thought in the body of Christ today as it pertains to our self image and how we should present ourselves.  And these two streams of thought are at polar opposites.  They are diametrically opposed.  For the sake of our discussion today and at the risk of over simplifying I have classified these two ideas as formal and informal.  Please humor me as I try to explain.  

1.  Formal.   The formal idea adopts certain scriptures such as rev 5:10  “we are kings and priests,  or 1^st peter 2:9  which tell us that “we are a chosen nation and chosen generation, his own special people.” 

People who subscribe to this approach emphasize words like royalty and focus on titles such as bishop, apostle and saints.  They concentrate heavily on the fact that we are royalty and that we are to be blessed. They dress, act and talk as if to showcase this fact.  Their mentality is that the world will be drawn to us because of our outward success and so therefore they will want to be Christians because as Christians they can be successful like us. 

I remember several years ago there was a Christian song that came out that for me sums up this mentality called “I’m proud to be a Christian.” I always thought “proud to be a Christian isn’t that counterintuitive?”  It sounds like an oxymoron to me.   

2.  Informal:  The second group is the informal group.  They emphasize humility in all things especially in the way that we think and talk about ourselves. 

They are averse to titles.  Everybody is on the same playing field and there is a real informality to everything.  They are against boasting and drawing attention to self because this is not humility. 

Now to be sure there are strengths and weaknesses in both of these persuasions. 

While there is no doubt that we are, spiritually speaking, royalty and we are a chosen generation and we are a nation of kings and priests.   But since this our Spiritual position and posture is it necessary to constantly proclaim it rubbing everybody’s nose in it all the time? The obvious weakness of this viewpoint is that it can and often does promote pride.  Titles become too much of the focus. 

On the other hand, some of us need to hear and remember who we are in Christ from time to time.  Some of us need a good biblical boost of our self esteem and remember that we are children of the king so that makes us royalty. 

The Biblical idea expressed by Christ and His apostles seems to strike a balance somewhere in between these two extremes.Let’s take a look at what may be the greatest treatise on a healthy self image in the entire bible. Philippians 2:5-7

In verse 5 we see that humility and servant hood are mindsets.  It has more to do with what you think about yourself than what you say about yourself.    

Vs 6 says that Jesus knew who He was.  He knew He was God and he knew He was equal with God.  You may be thinking “yeah but he didn’t brag about it.”  Well Jesus did not go around calling himself the carpenter or Joseph and Mary’s son either.  How did he refer to himself? 

We must remember that in ancient Israel the Jews considered the name of God to be so sacred that they would not utter it.  They had no word for it.  But Jesus, this carpenter from Nazareth shows up on the scene and starts throwing these terms around from the Old Testament  that were references only to God and he was referring to himself in the first person as:

n      The alpha and the omega

n      The son of God

n      The son of man

n      The lord

This incensed the Jewish rulers and religious elite of the day. They considered this to be blasphemy. In fact, this was the major charge they had against him. This was the reason why he was sentenced to death not because of his miracles but more than anything else because of what he said about himself. 

The Jews wanted him dead because he claimed to be God.  And the Romans wanted him dead because he claimed to be the king of the Jews and they feared that he would start an uprising as their king to overthrow Roman rule.  On both counts it was due to what he said and what he believed about himself that landed Him on the cross. 

What we say about ourselves is indicative of what we believe about ourselves and that belief has ramifications and consequences. Jesus knew who he was, he referred to himself as the son of God and the son of man and he did not correct others when they did likewise. 

Does this mean that Jesus was not humble?  No, he was still humble not because he thought of himself as less than he was but because of his actions. 

Vs.  7 tells us that he made himself of no reputation.  He took the form of a bondservant which was a willing slave and humbled himself in obedience even unto death.  His actions showed him to be a servant and humble.  It didn’t take away from his humility that he was confident in who he was. Christ was not concerned about His reputation or what others thought.

This seems to be the message that Christ’s language about Himself combined with his actions demonstrate to us. Christ’s self esteem was a perfect mixture of confidence and humility.  He did not need to engage in false humility or exaggerate titles in order to define Himself.  He knew who he was and boldly stated this understanding while at the same time demonstrating what His true purpose was and that was to be the servant of all.  

It is so easy to get caught up in what others think about us.  Any titles we possess or don’t possess only have meaning for others.  They tell others who we are or who we are desperately trying to be.  An overemphasis on titles in either extreme is still that an overemphasis on titles.  Stringently insisting that there should be no titles and structuring all interactions around this fact is still an overemphasis on titles.  The key is to know who we are in Christ, be confident about that fact and remember that our purpose here on earth is just as it was for Him to be the servant of all.  We need to learn how to be content with letting people say what they will.  And we can always rest assured that they will.