One of the major themes in society, related to personal development, is an individual’s hold on a sense of self-worth. At the close of the twentieth century, the topic became a major reference, in both popular and academic media, for most problems related to personal perceptions and relationships. Esteem is believed to be vital to the mental and emotional health of virtually every person. Ministers, or other counselors including parents, commonly hear troubled persons offer shallow analyses of lack of self-esteem as an issue before they recite the problem that carried them to the counselor. All persons have worth, resting in the image of God. We may misunderstand it.
When asked what self-esteem is, most persons do not have a clear definition or even a defensible idea about esteem. They seem to believe it has something to do with strong ego, perhaps mild arrogance, and that it relates to satisfaction in controlling one’s daily experience. What is self-esteem? If useful, how does one gain it? There is general feeling that it is needed. Alfred Adler said: To be human is to feel oneself inferior. Evidence of inadequate self-esteem is easily found. Many children are driven to despair and tears when their personal esteem is punctured.
Self-esteem as psychological theory emerged in the 1890s with the work of William James. The idea languished until the 1930s when the work of George Mead shifted some of the emphasis, and theory gained adherents with Alfred Adler’s accent on low self-esteem in the 1960s. Discussion has fallen into four areas of esteem: high, low, medium, and defensive. We hear much about high or low self-esteem, but only a little about medium (where most persons are), and defensive which relates to persons who feel low esteem but should have rather adequate levels, or, they feel high esteem when they qualify for some lower level. Defensives commonly mislead themselves.
It has been found that high self-esteem comes from: proficiency in performing tasks; how loved and accepted the person is by others; by a sense of power exerted with a preferred group; and, to the researchers’ surprise, how well the individual keeps personal values or moral standards. Without specifying the concepts of self-esteem, the Bible recognizes esteem as an issue found in God’s opinion of persons. Solomon wrote: the heart of the wicked is of little value. (Proverbs 10:20) The writer of 2 Samuel wrote about the appeal of David, the king, to his soldiers. They so loved him that they urged him not to go out to battle in which he might be killed: you are worth ten thousand of us. (18:3) Hyperbole? It does inform us about the esteem others held for David.
The teaching of Scripture is, basically, that the imperfections of mankind prevent us from gaining lasting self-esteem except as we find it in the Creator. Our worth is, primarily, rested in what God thinks of us. Even though human achievement is useful, mankind’s esteem is to be found in the belief that obedience to God vaults one forward beyond any achievements of his mortal status. Ultimate worth rests in God’s grace for his creation, a creation which he found to be good. The Apostle John wrote in Revelation 3:4, quoting Jesus Christ: They will walk with me . . . for they are worthy. One’s lasting worth is founded in the individual cashing in on God’s provision, as a life moves toward individual conclusion. The promise begins with acceptance of Christ, and acceptance by him to make the worth concept apply to immortality. My faith and personal sense of worth rests in what God believes of me, to be completed in the transition that is identified and carried through at the time of physical death. That worth is in the meaning of redeemed life as designed and identified with Jesus Christ. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020