This will be a four part series on the gospel and self-esteem, responding to common claims made about Christian self-esteem. The parts have all been written but are too long for one post so I’ll post one part a day for four days. The parts are:

Dangerous Claims
The Danger in Modern Thinking
Love for the Unlovable
Responding to the Love of God

Part 2: The Danger in Modern Thinking

“Whoa there, preacher man. What do you mean wrong, deceptive, and dangerous? In an age when so many people are depressed, how is it dangerous to help people feel good about themselves?”

First, it is dangerous to claim anything that runs contrary to God’s teaching, and we will see later what God’s Word has to say about God’s love and man’s worth. In God’s Word we will learn that we are not as lovable as some people would have us think.

Thus we have the second problem. If preachers, teachers, and speakers are telling us how valuable we are but Scripture tells us otherwise, where does that leave us? And why, if people are being told over and over of their own self-worth, do people continue being so depressed? We live in one of the most amazing periods in human history. Technological accomplishments stagger the mind. With our advancements have come huge increases in the availability of mood-altering drugs, access to counselors and psychiatrists, countless books and journals written to help people feel better – and yet we live in one of the most depressed times the world has ever seen. In our churches, the gospel of self-esteem has been going full force but our people are, if anything, even more depressed than before.

The problem is cognitive dissonance, trying to hold two ideas that contradict each other. On the one hand we are being told we’re special, we’re valuable, we’re worth loving. On the other hand we have a sense that this just isn’t true. We see our mistakes and flaws and goofs and know they are more than minor character issues, they cut to the core of who we are, leaving us people who really are not all that lovable. While voices all around tell us how lovable we are, we feel unlovable, even more unlovable because we wonder why we cannot see the value others say we should see. Thus the gospel of self-esteem leaves a person in a spiral of depression. This can only be corrected with a biblical view of self and of God’s love.

Third, the claim is wrong, deceptive, and dangerous because it upends the focus of God’s work. When the Bible tells us about God’s love it is meant to draw our eyes away from ourselves and toward Christ! Purveyors of the gospel of self-esteem are working against the gospel by directing attention away from the source of our good news. God’s love should never provoke a response of self-admiration. Those teaching the gospel of self-esteem would never call it self-admiration but what else is it?

The good news of Jesus Christ was not given so that we might feel better about ourselves, the good news of Jesus Christ should cause us to take our eyes off of ourselves entirely, focusing instead on Christ. We feel better because Christ has become the center of our being and he is truly glorious and magnificent and precious and valuable. The gospel of self-esteem is wrong, deceptive, and dangerous because it keeps self, rather than Christ, the center of our attention.

Tomorrow, what does the Bible have to say about God’s love for us?