What does the Bible say about self-worth?

Another matter for our attentive contemplation is that all believers are "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Christ is the Beloved of God, who has been raised from the dead and exalted to God's right hand, and "in Christ" every believer is just as perfectly accepted and beloved as He Himself is before God. Let us take time to think deeply of His exaltation and our acceptance in Him. Yet let us refuse utterly the common teaching today of "self-love," self-esteem," and "self-worth." This is merely confidence in the flesh. "In the flesh" man is worthless: "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). But "in Christ" you are of great value to God, for this is a position of absolute perfection.

Behind this lies the old error that my value depends on what others think of me. I could mention without hesitation a number of unmarried brothers and sisters whose faith and service is of great value for the saints. And while it is certainly good to mention our appreciation of this to those Christians, this is again on the level of how I value other believers. We do not become valuable by what we do (even if it is to marry), but are valuable because God has created us and we are precious in His eyes (see Ps. 139:12–16).

We may talk in a lowly way of ourselves, but self-depreciation is no evidence of the lowly mind, rather the reverse. In self-depreciation we are, after all, talking about ourselves, and this may be the worst form of pride — the pride of humility. The lowly mind does not think of self — good or bad — it thinks of others to serve in love. It is the ignoring of self, not the depreciation of self.

The quotation from the Psalm 8 covers not only verse 7 but also the first sentence of verse 8. In the rest of verse 8 and in verse 9 we have an inspired explanation of how the Psalm applies at the present moment. The quotation begins at the point where David, having surveyed the wonders of the universe, asks what man is worth. He used a Hebrew word which has the sense of "frail man" or "mortal man." Well, what is he worth? Evidently he is worth nothing. What then shall be said of the Son of Man? Ah! now we have a very different story. Even in the psalm David changed the word for man, and wrote "the Son of Adam"; and this we know our Lord was, as seen in Luke 3:38. He is worth everything. Though once made a little lower than the angels He is to be crowned with splendour and be set in absolute dominion, with all things under His feet.

(Vv. 6-9). To bring out this great glory of Christ, the writer quotes from Psalm 8, where the question is raised by David, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” The question brings out the littleness of man: the answer the greatness of Christ, the Son of Man. David, when contemplating the moon and the stars, feels his own insignificance in comparison with their immensity, and exclaims, “What is man?” Looking at man fallen, he is indeed very small; looking at man according to the counsels of God as set forth in Christ, the Son of Man, he is very great. Led by the Spirit of God, the writer of Hebrews sees Christ in the Son of Man of Psalm 8, and can say, “We see Jesus.”

"Fear ye not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows." We must listen to the Lord in John 17 to get an inkling of what we are worth. God could have created what in man's eyes might have been a far better world than this for each saint, and one perhaps more glorious than this was at the creation, but what could all have been in comparison with that which He has given us in Christ, and we have indeed more than this even — yea, the love of Him that gave it all.

There are two things which we all ought to avoid in this exercise of the faith which we have been given — over-estimation and under-estimation. In the first, it is thinking too highly; in the second, not thinking wisely. We do not want to have an inflated opinion of our ability, neither do we want to under-value what God has given us for His service.

The very first point where our conformity to the thoughts of God — and consequent non-conformity to the thoughts of the world — will be manifested, is in connection with self-esteem. Naturally each of us thinks no end of himself, for we have not learned to take our true measure before God. The more our minds are renewed the more we see ourselves as God sees us, and know that it is the measure of our faith that counts with Him. Faith brings God into our lives, and hence the measure of faith determines our spiritual calibre. We once heard a Christian remark of another, with gravity and a tinge of sadness, "Well, if we could buy that good brother at the price we put upon him, and sell him again at the price he places upon himself, we should make a huge profit!" God help us to learn how to think with great sobriety as to ourselves, realizing that not intellect, not social status, not money resources, not natural gifts but faith is the determining factor.

The efficacious bearing of Christ's sacrifice is as immense to faith, as the glory of His person and the depth of His suffering for sin. It is this which lays the ground for Christian humility; because it gives a purged conscience before God. Till then it was no more than an exercised conscience, and thereby a humbling process in the measure of our spiritual feeling. But in the work of Christ it is God who condemned sin in the flesh, not morally alone as in all that He was and did, but as a sacrifice for sin, that it might be utterly effaced in His sight, as indeed we become His righteousness in Christ. Hence the worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sins. They are entitled and meant to see themselves so clear in His light as to have done with themselves, and free with a pure conscience and a peaceful heart to enjoy the fulness of Christ. What a deliverance to have done with self! It was humbling to feel and have to own how vile we learnt ourselves to be. Is it not a truer deeper humility to know in His light, that our careless perhaps and certainly unworthy failure cost Him to be as it were consumed to ashes in God's unsparing judgment of our iniquity laid upon Him? and that we are, that I am, not worth thinking or talking about? How easy this ought to make it for each to esteem the other as better than himself! Such is the basis of Christian lowliness of mind. It is through divinely given faith.

Can one wonder that we have "haughty" next? They present an evil more deeply seated than the "boasters", though not so loud in its vain expression. They are the proud against whom God ranges Himself; the most akin to Satan's fault; the most alien from the mind which is in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondman, being made in the likeness of men, and, being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8). Thus it is that appreciation of Christ is our only sure and holy deliverance; for pride hides itself under so many veils, which may deceive itself as much as others, and none more than the mere professor or even the real Christian who walks with the world. Grace gives true lowliness, which consists not so much in thinking all the evil we can of ourselves as in thinking of Christ and not of ourselves at all. When we have seen Him, as He is, we can see ourselves not worth thinking of, save before God to judge our ways when faulty. We can then, readily and without effort, each esteem the other as more excellent than ourselves, regarding each not his own things but each those of others. Is it possible to draw a sketch more unlike what prevails in Christendom? "Proud" or "haughty" is the truest designation of the type that abounds.