What does the Bible say about being self-conscious?

Would to God His people could be content today with His approbation! How much is our walk really in the sight of men, instead of being in the sight of God! How largely we are influenced by the opinion of the world! How we shrink from the pathway of Him who was despised and rejected of men! And if we flatter ourselves that we disregard the judgment which the world may pass upon us, perhaps our brethren come in between us and the light of His face, and lest we should be cold-shouldered by them we take up a path of uncertainty before God. Oh, to have the courage of our convictions! Oh, to exercise ourselves “to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men”! Pride of heart, confidence in self, the influence of the world, the fear of man; these are evils from which may God be pleased to deliver His beloved saints.

It should be joy to any one who loves the Lord Jesus, to think of having His individual peculiar approbation and love, to find that He has approved of our conduct in such and such circumstances, though none know this but ourselves who receive the approval. But, beloved, are we really content to have an approval which Christ only knows? Let us try ourselves a little. Are we not too desirous of man's commendation of our conduct? or, at least, that he should know and give us credit for the motives which actuate it? Are we content, so long as good is done, that nobody should know anything about us? even in the church to be thought nothing of? — that Christ alone should give us the "white stone" of His approval, and the "new name which no man knoweth save only he that receiveth it?" Are we content, I say, to seek nothing else? Oh, think what the terrible evil and treachery of that heart must be that is not satisfied with Christ's special favour but seeks honour (as we do) one of another instead! I ask you, beloved, which would be most precious to you, which would you prefer — the Lord's public owning of you are a good and faithful servant, or the private individual love of Christ resting upon you, the secret knowledge of His love and approval? He whose heart is specially attached to Christ will respond — the latter. Both will be ours, if faithful, but we shall value this most, and there is nothing that will carry us so straight on our course as the anticipation of it.

It should be joy to any one who loves the Lord Jesus, to think of having His individual, peculiar approbation and love, to find that He has approved of our conduct in such and such circumstances, though none know this but ourselves who receive the approval. But, beloved, are we really content to have an approval which Christ only knows? Let us try ourselves a little. Are we not too desirous of man's commendation of our conduct? or at least that he should know and give us credit for the motives which actuate it? Are we content, so long as good is done, that nobody should know anything about us - even in the church to be thought nothing of - that Christ alone should give us the "white stone" of His approval, and the "new name which no man knoweth, save only he that receiveth it"? Are we content, I say, to seek anything else? Oh, think what the terrible evil and treachery of that heart must be, that is not satisfied with Christ's special favour, but seeks honour (as we do) one of another instead! I ask you, beloved, which would be most precious to you, which would you prefer - the Lord's public owning of you as a good and faithful servant, or the private, individual love of Christ resting upon you, the secret knowledge of His love and approval? He whose heart is specially attached to Christ will respond "the latter." Both will be ours if faithful, but we shall value this most, and there is nothing that will carry us so straight on our course as the anticipation of it.

All this is to maintain the conscience in the light before God. Where there is anxiety as to manifestation before the brethren, shame before men has still power over the heart and will. Self-love and character govern the mind. We are not in the light before God, nor has sin its right character in our eyes, because self has yet its power and place.

All this is to maintain the conscience in the light before God, where there is anxiety as to manifestation before the brethren. Shame before men has still power over the heart and will: self-love and character govern the mind. We are not in the light before God, nor has sin its right character in our eyes, because self has yet its power and place.

The difficulty itself was one that many of the Lord's servants have to face to-day, and almost invariably we are tempted to treat it as a very great thing; for naturally there is hardly anything that touches us to the quick more easily than criticism, and hardly anything that we cling to more tenaciously than our reputations.

There is no danger that besets men, and even the righteous, more than too keen a regard to their reputation. Here we begin with the secret of that which gives a quiet spirit, and of what calls forth contempt.

Enoch "before his translation had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb. 11:5). And why should not we be equally sensible of the divine approval? "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God" (1 John 3:21). How many of us are going about with a condemning heart?

Now he looks to the effect of walking with God, as giving, not the knowledge of forgiveness, but confidence. He wrote to them because they were all forgiven; but if I want to have my heart assured before God, I must walk in this way. If my intercourse with God causes my heart to condemn me, you cannot call it confidence. If I am not walking according to God, I must either get away from Him, or if I find myself in His presence, His Spirit is constantly reproaching me, and that is not confidence.

"For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." He knows a great deal about me that I do not know myself. If a child has got a bad conscience, he sneaks about, if his father is coming; but if not, he runs to meet him and throws himself into his arms. But he cannot have that kind of confidence, if his heart reproaches him. That is what we have always to look for: to be with God, and in entire confidence with Him - no thought behind that perhaps he has something against us, not as to condemnation, but as to present confidence. How far it goes, the entire full counting upon God - counting upon His present activity for us! It is not only a question of the day of judgment, but it is the present dealing of the soul with God, and of God for the soul. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." In chapter 5 it is said, "This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us." We are brought into a present confident spirit with God, so that we expect everything good from Him. If a child is going on naughtily, he cannot go on in confidence. He may say, My father loves me, but he is going to give me a whipping. But when the heart is all right, the child expects everything that flows from his father's love. So here, "Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." This has nothing to do with acceptance, but with the every-day outflowing of the Father's kindness, so that the child counts upon it. It is the terrible effect of looking at acceptance and forgiveness as the end of the Christian's course, that this confidence is almost unknown. The apostle began with forgiveness: "Your sins are forgiven you, for his name's sake"; and now he is speaking of the confidence of the heart towards God. You get this in John 14:23: "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him," etc. This is not the grace that saves. In the epistle John says, "We love him, because he first loved us." The Lord says, "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." He is speaking of the present exercise of this love to Christ.

On the other hand there are times — God be thanked — when our heart does not condemn us; times when the life and love and truth of God in our souls has been in vigour, expressing themselves in practice. Then it is that we have confidence and boldness before God. We have liberty in His presence. We can make request of Him with the assurance of being answered, and receiving in due season that which we have desired.