Home > The Secret of Biblical Self-Improvement; T.A.
McMahon
The Secret of Biblical
Self-Improvement
The popularity of
self-improvement, or self-help, books throughout the history of publishing is
rather amazing. The reasons given for the wide acceptance of such books,
historically, and especially in our day, are many, but they all boil down to
man’s desire to improve his condition or situation, whether financially,
socially, educationally, physically, psychologically, spiritually, or “all of
the above.” Although the goals are improvement and the bettering of one’s
circumstance, the primary method and motivation is by self and for self : how
can I improve me ?
Since self is the
fundamental focus of self-improvement, we need to give some serious thought to
what it is. A gathering of definitions from contemporary dictionaries reveals
self to be: the entire person; an individual’s typical character or behavior;
an individual’s temporary behavior or character; a person in prime condition;
the union of elements (as body, emotions, thoughts, and sensations) that
constitute the individuality and identity of a person; personal interest or
advantage. Simply stated, it’s you and me and all that makes up each of us as
individuals. The definition of “self” becomes more confusing, however, when
words are added to the front or back of it, such as one’s true self or self-
realization . Moreover, the number of hyphenated “self” words are in the
hundreds, from self-actualizing to self-worth, and each one adds its own
meaning or nuance to “self.”
Two
“self”-related adjectives convey the best and the worst condition of
self. Selfless : concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than
with one’s own: “an act of selfless devotion.” Its synonyms clarify its
wonderful qualities: unselfish, altruistic, self-sacrificing, self-denying;
considerate, compassionate, kind, noble, generous, magnanimous, ungrudging,
charitable, benevolent: “Her love was manifest in selfless service.” Selfish ,
on the other hand, has no redeeming qualities: (of a person, action, or motive)
lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal
profit or pleasure: “I entertained them for selfish reasons.” Synonyms include:
egocentric, egotistic, egotistical, egomaniacal, self-centered, self-absorbed,
self-obsessed, self-seeking, self-serving, wrapped up in oneself;
inconsiderate, thoughtless, unthinking, uncaring, uncharitable; mean, miserly,
grasping, greedy, mercenary, acquisitive, opportunistic; looking after number
one: “He is just selfish by nature.”
Scripture uses the term “self” in a very straightforward
way, i.e., the entire person, and most often as reflexive pronouns such as
“himself” and “themselves.” So the “secret” of the biblical use of the term is
not in its definition but in what the Word of God says about self and what it
instructs us to do with it, which is in direct opposition to what the so-called
wisdom of the world advocates.
According to our
world, which has been heavily influenced by humanistic psychology (the
contemporary breeding ground of all the selfist teachings), “self”—meaning the
entirety of a human being—is innately good . Flaws or dysfunctions within a
person’s life stem from sources of influences external to the person himself,
e.g., his parents, or his physical, social, and educational environment, and so
forth. The belief in inherent goodness is involved in all psychological
counseling—and not as an option; it is foundational. The reason is obvious. If
a person is not inherently good but has a fundamental defect in his nature that
affects to some degree every aspect of his life, there is nothing a
psychotherapist can do to alter the defect and its ultimate consequences. It’s
like the proverbial attempt to change a leopard’s spots. One could dye the
leopard’s skin or cover it in some fashion, but such superficial acts would do
nothing to truly change the spots. The leopard’s genetics won’t allow it.
But if self is
indeed innately good, then it’s simply a matter of a psychological counselor
getting a client to recognize the goodness of his “self” and to
psychotherapeutically remove all the things that are preventing the success of
that belief. There are more than 500 different psychotherapies that have been
conjured up to do just that. But many of them conflict with one another, and
none of them proves or even makes a plausible case for man’s inherent goodness.
Consequently, all of the methodologies only address a client’s problems as
symptomatic issues, because they can do nothing to change the nature of
humanity. However, what is impossible for man is possible with God!
The Bible declares unequivocally that the heart of man is
not good :
The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?; For from
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil
things come from within, and defile the man. (Jeremiah:17:9The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?; Mark:7:21-23
[21] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders,
[22] Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
[23] All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.)
Scripture tells
us that “men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John:3:19And
this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.) and that “all have
sinned…” (Romans:3:23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;).
These verses, and many more, describe the fallen nature of humanity, and there
is nothing that anyone can do to change it or improve it.
Only God can
change self and make it better, but He doesn’t do it by man’s way. That’s the
“secret” of biblical self-improvement, which is only secret in the sense that
Christianity has lost sight of what the Scriptures clearly teach and what the
church has practiced since the time of the apostles. That blindness began in
earnest in the middle of the last century as psychological counseling made deep
inroads to Christendom. By the 1970s some of the most influential names in the
evangelical media were Christian psychologists, psychotherapists, and
psychiatrists such as James Dobson, Frank Minirth, Paul Meier, Gary Collins, John
Trent, and Gary Smalley, to name but a few. Books promoting “self” flooded the
Christian marketplace, including Hide or Seek: How to Build Self-esteem in Your
Child by psychologist Dr. James Dobson and Self-esteem: the New Reformation by
Robert Schuller, whose book was sent out gratis to 250,000 evangelical pastors.
Self-love and self-esteem became new doctrines that were taught by most of the
popular evangelical pastors of the day.
What too few
Christians realize is that the rise of the unbiblical teachings of self-love
within the church in our day is a matter of prophecy being fulfilled. In 2
Timothy 3, the Apostle Paul warns Timothy about a “perilous” time when
self-love will be foundational to sins that will wreak havoc among believers:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves … ” (vv. 1-2). Some might wonder why that is
prophetic, when mankind has had a self-serving bias going clear back to the
fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Looking out for “number one,” Adam
blamed the woman whom God had given him, and Eve blamed the serpent (i.e.,
Satan), who seduced her into disobeying God.
Self-love has
created problems for humanity throughout the centuries, but it wasn’t until the
last 100 years or so that the selfisms were promoted as the basic solutions to
nearly all of mankind’s ills, especially our mental, emotional, and behavioral
problems. Much of that began with the “looking within” and the self-analysis
practiced by Freud and Jung, but ironically—and more specifically—it involved a
chiding by anti-Christian Friedrich Nietzsche that Christians didn’t love
themselves enough. That was picked up and promoted by psychologist and
humanistic philosopher Eric Fromm, as Dave Hunt noted:
Fromm, an
atheist, popularized the idea of self-love. He got it from Nietzsche. One of
Fromm’s books was Ye Shall Be as Gods . He took the lie of the Serpent for its
title. In his book, Man for Himself , he justified the idea that we all hate
ourselves and need to learn to love ourselves by saying that Jesus taught it
when He said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (TBC, Q&A, 9/1986)
That distortion of the Scriptures was then accepted by
increasing numbers of evangelical preachers and teachers who should have known
better. First of all, it’s a simple error in math. The proponents of self-love
have made loving one’s neighbor as oneself into a third commandment, whereas Matthew:22:37-40
[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38] This is the first and great commandment.
[39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.
[40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
declares:
Jesus said unto
him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
It’s two commandments, not three. Furthermore, as Dave
points out, “…if we were deficient in self-love, Jesus wouldn’t have said to
love your neighbor as you love yourself, because he said it to everybody and
not to a certain class or category of people. So it’s a given—we must already
love ourselves. And he couldn’t say ‘do unto others as you would have them do
unto you’ (Matthew:7:12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.) if we
all innately hated ourselves and wanted to do ourselves harm.” That error is
further contradicted by Ephesians:5:29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh;
but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:: “For no man
ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the
Lord the church.”
Loving self
before loving God and others is mankind’s natural bias, whether he or she is a
committed Christian or not, and the consequence of that is associated with
nearly all of the difficulties we experience in life. Paul’s words to Timothy
give a litany of the after effects of loving self:
…covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors,
heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this
sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with
sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy:3:2-7 [2] For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy,
[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God;
[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such
turn away.
[6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
[7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.)
So that’s the bad
news. What, then, of the good news of how God can change our nature and improve
self? It can happen only by turning to Him for the salvation that He alone has
provided for all of mankind. That involves being reconciled to Him by admitting
our sinfulness and accepting Christ’s full payment for our sins by faith alone.
Nothing more is required to receive the gift of eternal life, other than
trusting in Jesus for saving us from the infinite penalty that our sin
deserves. That’s the gospel, and it’s the only way that humanity can be saved.
Once a person puts his trust in Jesus for salvation, he
becomes a new creature: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2
Corinthians:5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.). He has been purged
from his old sins and is no longer under the bondage of sin (2 Peter:1:9But he
that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins.; John:8:31-32 [31] Then said Jesus to
those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my
disciples indeed;
[32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.).
As a believer in
Christ, he has been born again spiritually, is in communion with God, and is
fully able to love and obey Him. This was impossible prior to becoming a new
creature in Christ. He is a “new man,” a new self (Ephesians:4:24And that ye
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness.), someone who can now live his life according to God’s instructions
in His Word.
The first instruction for a blessed and fruitful life is,
however, that just as he could not save himself, neither can he do the things
that will improve his life by himself . Biblical self-improvement is nothing
like the world’s “self-improvement”; in fact, it’s the opposite. Although a
believer’s new life in Christ has set him free from the bondage of sin, he
still retains his old nature with its self-serving bias. That is a major
battleground for every believer in Christ. Yet for all who have committed their
lives to the Lord, He has provided through His Word and the enablement of the
Holy Spirit all that they need to win the battle over their flesh and to do the
things that please God. Contrary to the world’s loving, esteeming, glorifying,
even deifying self, Scripture tells us to deny self—to submit oneself
completely to God and the instructions of His Word:
And he [Jesus]
said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke:9:23And he said to them all, If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and
follow me.)
Denying self is
not the same as denying one’s existence. For the believer, it’s the recognition
that although “self,” which was formerly in rebellion against God, continues to
have autonomy (the capacity to make moral decisions for good or evil), it has
now been enabled to choose and to live in righteousness in one’s desire to
please the Lord.
Scripture abounds
with verses exhorting us to put the Lord and others before ourselves. “Be
kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one
another” (Romans:12:10Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love;
in honour preferring one another;); “Let no man seek his own, but every man
another’s [well-being]” (1 Corinthians:10:24Let no man seek his own, but every
man another's wealth.); “Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good
to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself” (Romans:15:2-3 [2] Let
every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
[3] For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The
reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.).
Furthermore, the Word of God gives us
instructions on how we can do those very things, in essence “biblically
improving self.” Ironically, it involves a dying process.
We are to die to self—that is, to our autonomous will
(also known as self-will)—not only by turning it over to the Lord and
submitting to Him, but also by allowing Him to live His life through us:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians:2:20I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.)
The issue of self
is one of the most confused and distorted doctrines among Christians today,
including those who profess that the Bible is their authority in all matters of
faith and practice. That’s the primary reason why the troubles of non-Christians
differ little statistically from those who profess to be Christians. The hope
for this series is that we might clarify what the Bible says about self and how
we can biblically improve it. There is no doubt that such an understanding and
a carrying out of what the Scriptures teach will transform us and improve every
aspect of our lives in Christ. TBC
Quotable: Faith means implicit confidence in Jesus, and
that requires not intellect only but a moral giving over of myself to Him. . .
. It is this point of moral surrender that nearly every man “shies off.” We
sentimentally believe, and believe, and believe, and nothing happens. We pray
“Lord, increase our faith,” and we try to pump up the faith, but it does not
come. What is wrong? The moral surrender has not taken place. Will I surrender
from the real centre of my life, and deliberately and willfully stake my
confidence on what Jesus Christ tells me?
—Oswald Chambers
