Self-Esteem and the Bible
Low self-esteem is not a problem for anyone. Because the problem is not that we think too little of ourselves, but rather far too much. We are by nature “lovers of self,” with a growing appetite for self-gratification.
Once we begin to see ourselves through the lens of Scripture, in the light of who God is, promoting self begins to lose its appeal. Instead we see Christ, who radiates all that is praise-worthy and good....and it is Him we want to es...teem, not ourselves.

Pride is deceitful, and has a way of disguising itself as humility. Someone who expresses a low view of themselves can be suffering from the same problem as someone who is boastful and arrogant. Because they are both pointing to the same thing....self; they just took a different route to get there. As Tim Keller put it, “The essence of gospel humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself...it is thinking of myself less.”
So how do we, who live in an age of selfies and self-expression, learn to place self where it rightly belongs? How do we learn to “esteem one another more highly than ourselves” (Phil. 2:3) when we are so prone to an over-indulgence of everything that feeds our lust for me, myself and I?
We learn to die. We learn to see ourselves “crucified with Christ,” so that our living is not an expression of us getting what we want, but rather a display of Christ getting what He paid for. (the grace that transforms us into His image.) We learn to find our worth wrapped up in who He is, and confess that we are not our own. We won't be as easily tempted to pamper, pity and promote self when we remember the price He paid to redeem us from it.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
(Gal. 2:20)