Is It A Sin To Have Self Esteam?

Question

Alot of Pastors seem to teach that self esteam is a sin. I remember one radio pastor who said, "Do you have to love yourself first before you can love other people? No, you don't."
It seems to be the additude with alot of born agains. They think little of themselves. The opposite of self esteam is depression and suicide.

Answer 1

I've never heard a true pastor of the Gospel preach this. Most "radio pastors" have no knowledge of psychology, theology or even the Bible itself...they merely pick and choose what they want to harp on about without any sort of wisdom...and they use it to prey on people's insecurities to make themselves rich. Those sort of "pastors" mistake having a healthy self-esteem with having arrogance and vanity...which is definitely something that MOST of the world's religions preach against.

Having low self-esteem has nothing to do with being "Born Again" at least to my understanding of real Christian theology. It's about getting a fresh start as it were, becoming a "new creature" and not being kept back by the negative and bad things of the past.

If you review the Bible, you will see there are several significant passages that talk about the importance of having a healthy self esteem and to love yourself as well as others.

In the New Testament, Jesus teaches that the GREATEST commandment is to "Love thy neighbor AS thyself" as all 10 commandments hang on this one. The Bible also teaches "Do unto others as you would have them do unto YOU" both sound a lot like it's important to think of yourself positively.

Proverbs 31 is all about speaking of a very confident woman with good self-esteem who accomplishes amazing things and is respected in her family and her community.

A healthy self-esteem means not seeing yourself as being better or worse than others. We are cautioned not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought (Romans 12:3). We must attempt not to be “high-minded” or “wise in [our] own conceits” (Romans 11:20; 12:16). In other words, avoid being a snob...or a reverse snob for that matter.

Romans 12:3 also warns, “Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.” I guess it's just a matter of striking a balance between the emotionally unhealthy extremes of "I am everything" and "I am nothing" points of view that can indeed lead to alienation, depression and suicide. That's something for all of us to work on, Christian or not.

Answer 2

Mostly. Having self esteem is too easily turned into false pride and arrogance. And i agree with the pastor in that you don't have to love yourself to love others. It is just an convenient, ignorant catch phrase that sounds oh so wholesome. And just because YOU say the opposite of self esteem is depression and suicide doesn't make it so. So in closing i would like to recommend that people dump the self esteem routine. There is a much , much better substitute. It is a good healthy dose of, (((( SELF RESPECT ))))

Answer 3

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard--'self esteem is a sin' my foot. Self-esteem what makes it possible for us to operate as functional human beings on a daily basis. If you have no confidence or love for yourself, and I mean NO confidence or love, how can you be comfortable enough to take care of or love somebody else? I think what those people might be trying to get at is don't be so pumped full of yourself that you're prideful...but that's just my take.

No, self-esteem is not a sin. That's ridiculous.

Answer 4

I'd say it would be more of a sin to have no self-esteem at all. After all, God the Father gave His Son to die for us that we might be sons and daughters to Him. God the Son actually died for us that we might be brothers and sisters with Him. God the Holy Spirit ministers to us day and night via our conscience that we might be transformed into Christ's Image.

Since the Godhead did and are doing all this for us, how can we not have a little self-esteem as a result of how worthy He has made us? If we have no self-esteem, that means we don't believe that God has made us so worthy of His Love. Such unbelief is calling God a liar and is, therefore, a sin.

That radio "pastor" was quite a bit misguided and not familiar with his Bible. Of course! you have to love yourself before you can love others -- and Jesus said so:

Mat 22:39 ... 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'

I think that speaks clearly for itself.

Answer 5

We are to love others as we love ourselves. We take care of our own needs when we love ourself; it's an action word, not a feeling word. We are also to forgive as we would like to be forgiven. Selflessness isn't low self-esteem, it's putting others first instead of yourself. Self-esteem isn't a sin, but it's selfish and not loving. It can lead to pride which is one of the 7 things that God hates.

Answer 6

Pride is a sin, or at least, too much of it. It is also a sin to put the needs of others before the wants of yourself. It is the sin committed more than any other in my opinion. Self esteem is good as long as it is not putting yourself before others.

Answer 7

Self-esteem when leading to self-righteousness ..yes it is a sin...because no one is perfect in the eys of God...when you carry yourself as a perfect person and you are arrogant, critical, prejudiced, perfectionist, self-centered, egotist..all self self..then it is a sin..but to love oneself to love others better is another argument, because if you learn to love yourself you can discern others better and love them more , ok???

Answer 8

occurs to me nicely my concern is i'm getting puffed up interior the streets and later whilst i bypass to coach i think of (this i already did this and nicely my self esteam hates doing the flaws i already did )attempt no longer fiddling with ur acquaintances for sometime and notice if it extremely works

Answer 9

Some folks seem to confuse healthy self esteem with false pride.
Each of us is a unique Creation of God, and each of us is special to Him in different ways.
The important thing is to recognize that, whatever is good in us, we inherited from our Father...

Do you have a beautiful voice, for instance?
Great!
Recognize that God created that voice...
And use it to His glory...

Answer 10

Why should it be a sin? By the way, you cannot have self esteem until you can spell it and also realise that "a lot|" is two words, not one.