I’m starting to develop a love-hate relationship with this series. I love the reminders and the between-the-eyes nature of the questions. But I hate how they expose sin. Today I’m going to meddle a bit, but if you don’t like it, you can blame the Holy Club. Disclaimers aside, prepare to be skinned.
The Christian life rightly lived is a life lived for others. This is awfully difficult to do if our focus is always on ourselves. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be looking after ourselves or be working to put to death personal sins. Rather, in living sacrificially, we ought to be less focused on ourselves than we are on others. Holy Club question #6 deals with this issue head on. Here it is:
Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
Again, we’ll take these in turn and take a brief look at them all. Perhaps it will bring to mind some areas where we need to grow.
Self-Consciousness
We tend to regard self-conscious people as victims of a low self-esteem. The reality is quite the opposite. The self-conscious person is concerned that others won’t regard him as highly as he would like. When I’m self-conscious, I’m concerned that someone is not going to like me, or appreciate me, or think I’m as cool as I think I am.
If self-conscious people were just victims of circumstance, then the Holy Club probably wouldn’t regard self-consciousness as something commanding repentance. Having a perpetual God-consciousness or even an others-consciousness can quickly correct our perspective.
Self-Pity
This is the likely fruit of self-consciousness. Self-pity follows self-consciousness like a oft-beaten dog slinks behind his ruthless master. Count on it: if you are hoping that others will think you’re as cool as you think you are, you’ll soon feel sorry for yourself as certainly as the sun rises in the east.
Self-Justification
Not surprisingly, this one comes next. When you finally decide that not everyone appreciates you the way you deserve, the excuses bubble forth like spring water. If you can can justify why they’re wrong, you can also justify why you’re right. This makes for an incredibly unteachable person.
The self-justifying person acknowledges that he’s not perfect, but calls anyone who agrees with that assessment “judgmental.” He also refuses to accept responsibility for his own sin or its consequence; it’s always someone else’s fault (e.g., spouse, the boss, “them,” etc.).
The Remedy
All of these selfish tendencies require our repentance. Once we’ve done that, we need to fill our minds with Scripture so that we may know God better. The better we rightly know Him, the better we’ll rightly know ourselves, and this ought to have a humbling effect.
Have you read…?
- Twenty-Two Questions Worth Asking
- Questions Worth Asking #4: Trustworthiness
- Question #1: Hypocrisy?
- Promises of God and an Easter Appeal
Leave a Reply