“Self” certainly receives a lot
of attention these days. Go into any bookstore, library or newsstand and we’ll
find complete sections devoted to “self-help.” Topics range from how to take good
photos to cooking to home repairs and renovation. Books and publications also
promise to teach us how to become rich, stay healthy, and become fluent in a
foreign language in just 30 days.
These days we don’t even need
to venture outside the home for self-help assistance. Google and other search
engines guide us to whatever self-help information we need. YouTube offers
video tutorials of virtually everything, from installing new software to
building birdhouses. If you’re facing major surgery, you can even find videos
showing what you’re about to go through (if you’re brave enough to look).
We all need help in these or
other areas, and after all, doesn’t the Bible say, “God helps those that help
themselves”? Uh, no, it does not – but that’s a subject for another day. The
point is, we live in a society enraptured with Self, and not just in the
self-help sense.
We often hear people talk about
self-fulfillment. Speakers talk to us about self-actualization and
self-realization. Counselors provide clients with tips for self-determination. Parents
fret over protecting their children’s self-image. Hence, “participation
trophies” for everyone, whether they did anything of merit or not. We don’t
want Jimmy to think he’s not as good as Johnny. Heaven forbid!
Thanks to the convenience of
smartphones, “selfies” are only an arm’s length away. I’ve heard people say
they enjoy being with only three friends – “me, myself, and I.” There’s even a
magazine called Self. Yes, Self seems
to be the center of attention just about everywhere we go.
The problem is, the Bible
teaches a secret to successfully living God’s way is learning to take the focus
off Self. For instance, Philippians 2:3-4 teaches, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility
consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to
your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Whoa! Not exactly
what Self wants to hear.
It doesn’t stop there. Jesus
explained what it requires to be His true follower: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Not long after that, Jesus
became the ultimate role model, willingly enduring scorn and ridicule, torture,
and then crucifixion, not because of anything He had done or deserved, but
because we all owed a great penalty for our sins – a price we couldn’t begin to
pay – so He paid the full price Himself, giving His life on our behalf. God incarnate denying self.
The apostle Paul, once as full
of Self as anyone who ever walked the earth, understood well the importance of
denying self. He declared, “I die daily” (1
Corinthians 15:31), not referring to physical death but death to the desires
and demands of self, so that he might serve Christ more effectively and
consistently.
To believers in the church in
Rome, Paul wrote, “…just as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new
life…. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought
from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of
righteousness” (Romans 6:4-13).
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