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.