Worm-Theology is Death

This article is a follow-up to the previous article: Piety or Pietism?

What is worm theology? It’s death, like the title says. Okay, okay, let me explain. Worm theology is a doctrinal belief about ourselves and our identity (supposedly supported from the Bible) that emphasizes how little, insignificant, and worthless we are because of our inherent insignificance in the universe and our utter sinfulness against God. It promotes an attitude of self-abasement and so-called humility so that you feel that you are lower than the lowest and nothing more than dust—or—a worm …in the dust. It is often taught in Calvinistic circles who have such a high view of God that they disparage their view of man. It is often also coupled with the pietism culture of excess self-introspection. The reason I say worm-theology is death is because it completely obliterates and shatters one’s identity as made in the image of God with inherent value and worth; and this destroys spiritual health and vitality, creating a culture of shame and lost identity. Though the Calvinists believe in man being made in the image of God, some have the tendency to speak in ways that are often unhelpful and in so doing, they disparage the human identity. Their rhetoric creates this idea of mankind that is so rotten, putrid, and unlovable that it makes it difficult for believers and unbelievers alike to believe that God actually loves them or even likes them. It stunts faith. Using such rhetoric and steep contrasts of our unworthiness can sometimes have a positive effect of promoting gratitude and humility but the danger is that it can also steal away faith from the listener and burden people with shame. The shame can be so heavy that faith cannot be lifted up any higher. Unknowingly, people then become stuck in unbelief or half-belief, which they like to call and pass off as humility. Somehow it also makes them feel good and their feelings affirm to them that this is indeed humility and so they believe it. They like feeling lowly and insignificant and so they hold onto their pietistic culture tightly. Instead of having full-faith in their salvation, they continue in partial faith saying, “Oh God, I’m so unworthy, I can’t believe you would save and love someone like me!” This is often seen as piety but lurking behind the shadows of such a humble heart lies unbelief. They would be better off just thanking God for their salvation, taking full-faith in His love for them. But alas, there is a smidget of unbelief stemming from their pietistic self-abasement, rhetoric, and doctrine in which they see themselves. This is death. And this is where many modern church doctrines lead people unknowingly.

This is one of the reasons why many churches are still bound to sin and religion. But this is not to say that some people cannot speak of their unworthiness in a truthful and rightful way with faith. Sometimes that can be so but only God knows the heart. But even as I say these things, some people will still choose a religious mindset over freedom and rest because that’s what they’ve grown accustomed to and that’s what they know and they think it’s what gives God the most glory. They are set in their ways. I do not have time to explain every single doctrine of contention and how every doctrine relates to our spiritual lives by how we see God and ourselves. I would simply encourage you to read all the theological articles on my website to renew your mind to a different way of thinking so you can get the old stuff out. There is so much that connects and it works together as a theological whole and effects the spiritual life. The aim of all that theology is to transform the spiritual life. It’s not just for information to satisfy one’s curiosity. To be clear here, I’m not trying to demonize Calvinists. It’s possible to still be a Calvinist yet not get sucked up into all this pietism and worm-theology. But if you’ve been listening to the popular Calvinists out there, then you’ll probably get sucked right into it. To be fair though, they do have honorable ambitions to glorify God and fight against the me-centered Christian culture. Unfortunately though, their doctrines and rhetoric go too far to one extreme to avoid the other extreme.

Having briefly introduced what worm-theology is and its dangers, let us take a closer look at what the Bible actually says and let us rightly interpret those passages.

Isaiah 41:14 says, “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”

Worms are frail, weak, dependent, mortal, transient, and lowly esteemed. Jacob was known for using his trickery and scheming to get his way. For God to point out Jacob as a worm, it emphasized the nation’s helplessness and dependance on God to overcome rather than relying on their own strength and devices. Like a worm, the nation was small and insignificant compared to other nations. They needed God’s help and God chose them, loved them, and decided to help them. In Isaiah 41:14 God was not speaking to a specific individual but to the nation of Israel which sprung from Jacob. For this reason, it would be inappropriate to use this verse as a biblical defense to call ourselves or see our identity as worms though we can at the same time affirm the reality that we are weak, dependent, mortal, transient, and lowly creatures. God was saying such things so that they would humbly recognize their humble estate.

In Job 25:6, one of Job’s friends, Bildad, said to Job, “How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman? If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight, how much less man, that maggot, and the son of man, that worm!”

We cannot justify using this text to identify ourselves with worms because not everything that anyone says in the Bible is something that God approves of. We see later in the story of Job that God actually rebukes Job’s friends for speaking wrongly (Job 42:7). Therefore, we would do well to not imitate the exact theology or attitude of Job’s friends as if all the words that came out of their mouth were divine truth.

In Psalm 22:6 David says, “But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people.”

In the context, David is experiencing agony within his soul from all those who have come up against him and is poetically expressing how he feels. But how he feels does not determine the reality of who he is. David is narrating how he feels, he is not prescribing a certain lingo for Christians to regularly use to be or sound more pious. For those who understand hermeneutics, they know well the interpretive rule that narrative is not prescriptive. Just because someone has a certain attitude or performs a certain sin in the Bible, that doesn’t automatically make it okay for us to do it.

Those are all the worm verses in the Bible and in my previous article I also covered Paul’s comment on saying that he is the foremost or chief of all sinners and why we shouldn’t get caught up in using that kind of language about ourselves. We really need to stop all the self-depreciation language. I also have another article on who and how we were made in the image of God in the atonement series so that we can come to terms with our true created identity. But this article will not focus on that aspect. We will continue examining other Bible verses often used by Christians to self-depreciate themselves.

In Galatians 6:3 Paul says, “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” By saying that “he is nothing,” Paul is not saying that people are worthless. He’s saying that whoever thinks he is extra special and too good to bear one another’s burdens, like you’re Mr. important and too good to help other people, then you need to realize that you’re nothing special. That is, no more special than these other people who need help. You need to stop having an exaggerated, inflated idea of yourself. That’s what Paul is saying. This isn’t a doctrine of worthlessness but an exhortation to action and humility to consider one another as more important than yourself (Phil 2:3). We would do well to keep in mind that ‎“no matter how high God takes you, you are no higher than the lowest. Remember, the ground is level at the foot of the cross” (Jeffrey E. Ramey). We must remember that we are all bond-servants unto God. If we ever do use the phrase, “we are nothing,” we should add, “without Him.” But even so, we do have inherent value created in the image of God. Even animals are important to God and He takes care of them.

Isaiah 40:22 says, “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” Grasshoppers are obviously not our identity. It is a simile word, a word meant to say that people are like this to draw contrast between how big God is to how small we are. It’s a lovely verse that magnifies the grandeur of God and it can be comforting for us if we set our focus rightly. If we have our minds honed in to how small we are, then we’re doing it all wrong. This verse is not about us—it’s about God—and so the focus should be that we see the magnificence of God so that everything else fades out of view and all appears small, even ourselves. That’s how we should do it. Rather than looking at ourselves and our smallness to see God magnificence, we look at God’s magnificence to see our smallness. That is how we think about it in a healthy way. When I was much younger in my Christian faith, I actually had a very fun experience. I was outside and I picked up a grasshopper and gently covered it with my hands together. Then this verse entered into my mind and I sort of placed myself in God’s shoes looking at that grasshopper and thinking how big God really is and I was so humbled and thankful and amazed that being as small as I am, that God can love me so much and chooses to show compassion towards me.

In Romans 7:24 Paul says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” And in Revelation 3:17 Jesus says to the church of Laodicea, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked…” The word “wretched” means “distressed, miserable” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary). Or “enduring toils and troubles; afflicted” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). In the English dictionary, wretched means “(1) deeply afflicted, dejected, or distressed in body or mind. (2) extremely or deplorably bad or distressing. (3a) being or appearing mean, miserable, or contemptible. (3b) very poor in quality or ability: inferior” (Merriam-Webster). Romans 7:24 and Revelation 3:17 are the only two uses of this Greek word in the Bible. Before I looked this up, I had always thought wretched meant something like, “Super Sinner,” but I guess I was wrong. Glad that’s cleared up. It just means someone who is in a terrible condition or who is afflicted in feeling that way. I wonder if the preachers know that…

“Only God is worthy.” This is a phrase or sentiment often spoken in sermons and songs. For example, “I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies” (2 Sam 22:4; Ps 18:3). The centurion said to Jesus, “I am not worthy for You to come under my roof” (Mt 8:8). John said of Jesus, “It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie” (Jn 1:27). Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” In the vision that John saw, an angel proclaimed with a loud voice and asked, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” John then says that no one on heaven or earth was found that could open the book and break its seals “because no one was found worthy” (Rev 5:4). But then Jesus showed up and was able to open the book because He was found worthy, and they sang “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (v. 9).

The Bible also speaks about man’s possible unworthiness: “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10:38). The prodigal son speaks of himself saying, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son…” (Lk 15:19, 21).

On the contrary, we do have some verses in the Bible that do say man is worthy: Jesus said, “for the laborer is worthy of his wages” (Lk 10:7). Paul said to Timothy that “the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching” (1 Tim 5:17, 18; cf. 6:1). Jesus said to His disciples, “Whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it” (Mt 10:11, 13). That is, those who accept the gospel are worthy (Lk 20:35). Or, they can be worthy (2 Thess 1:5, 11). In the parable of the Marriage Feast, many people were invited but few came because they had many excuses (Mt 22; Lk 14). The king said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy” (Mt 22:8). This implies that those who did come to the feast were worthy. When the apostles were persecuted and flogged, they considered themselves “worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).

Even the early church father, Ignatius (AD 98-117), spoke of being worthy:

In Ignatius’ letter and introduction to the Trallians, he says, “dearly loved by God the Father of Jesus Christ, elect and worthy of God, at peace in flesh and spirit through the suffering of Jesus Christ…”

He speaks of the Romans, saying that they were “enlightened” “worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification…” “united in flesh and spirit to every commandment of his, who have been filled with the grace of God without wavering and filtered clear of every alien color…” (Letter to the Romans: intro).

Ignatius speaks of himself saying, “But I myself am ashamed to be counted among them, for I am not worthy, since I am the very last of them and an untimely birth. But I have been granted the mercy to be someone, if I reach God.” Then he says, “I write these things to you from Smyrna through the Ephesians, who are most worthy of blessing” (Letter to the Romans: 9-10).

“I was judged worthy of seeing your blameless face” (Letter to the Philadelphians: 1:1).

“But also pray for me, for I need your love in the mercy of God so that I may be reckoned worthy of the fate that I am eager to obtain, lest I be found disqualified” (Letter to the Trallians: 12:3).

In the context of Ignatius’ letters, he was aware of the impeding martyrdom that was to come upon him and we wanted to keep strong until the end, to be counted worthy of such a noble and honorable sacrifice to God in light of what Jesus has done for him and all those who had been martyred before him. He also spoke of the internal conflict that he had within himself to stay humble. He said, “For now I must be more careful and pay no attention to those who flatter me, for those who speak to me in this manner torture me. For while I strongly desire to suffer, I do not know whether I am worthy, for the envy, though not apparent to many, wages against me all the more. Therefore I need gentleness, by which the ruler of this age is destroyed (Letter to the Trallians: 4:1-2).

(The Apostolic Fathers: edited and translated by Michael W. Holmes, 3rd Ed, Baker Academic, 2007).

The Bible mentions that we can and should live worthy of God and the gospel: Paul says, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Eph 4:1). Philippians 1:27 “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…” Colossians 1:10 “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” 1 Thessalonians 2:12 “so that you would walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into His kingdom and glory.” 3 John 1:6 “and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.” Jesus said that those who walk with Him in white “are worthy” (Rev 3:4).

Some preachers might echo the sentiment: “You don’t deserve anything but hell. You can’t have anything nice in life.” Oh, come on, please… lighten up. You’re going over the top. You can treat yourself to nice things for all your hard work. Even Solomon thinks so (Ecc 5:18). Let’s stop the exaggerated language.

From what we can see here from the Bible, Jesus never meant that we should always speak down on ourselves. Because, the truth is, we can be worthy. Now, for some of us, that might sound like heresy or blasphemy but it’s what the Bible says. We just need to renew our minds in the truth of God’s Word and filter out some of the ways we’ve been conditioned always to think in Christian culture. This doesn’t mean that we think of ourselves more or more often. It just means that we need to drop some of this extra pious thinking and speaking which is false humility. Let’s not get caught up in the trap and pit of false humility, using language all the time saying that we are unworthy and that’s all we’ll ever be, and barring other people for ever daring to say that they deserve anything in life. Because, frankly, that’s just not biblical. Don’t worry, you can still say that you’re unworthy, because that’s biblical too; and you can still have high thoughts about God but while also accepting these things.

But even after all that has been said, we may have some cognitive dissonance in our minds because we have some seemingly contradictory information. Are we worthy or not worthy? How do we reconcile these two things?

There are different uses for the word “worthy” and obviously when we’re speaking of God’s worthiness, we’re speaking of something very different than when we speak of man’s worthiness.

If Jesus is the only one who was found worthy, then that means that no one could ever accomplish what Jesus accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection to save humanity. No one can beat Jesus and so Jesus has the highest honor above all. But we can walk in His footsteps of suffering and death to live in a way that is worthy of the price He paid. This isn’t about deserving grace and mercy because by definition, that is unmerited, freely given. This is about living a life pleasing to God so that the honor we bestow upon God through our service matches the honor that He is worthy of receiving. And, that our hard work will be well-rewarded in heaven. Whatever we sow in our labor in this life, we will reap in the life to come. That is what it means to live worthy of God and the gospel.

“Only God is good.” This phrase might be used by some people to discourage others from calling them or anyone else “good.” This idea comes from Mark 10:18 in which Jesus responds to the rich man, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” But on the contrary, Acts 11:24 says of Stephen, that “he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith.” Elsewhere, people are called good (Prov 2:20; 12:2; 13:22; 14:14; Ecc 9:2). Jesus even speaks of “good” men (Mt 12:35; Lk 6:45). So, if the Bible used the word “good” as a general quality speaking highly of someone else, then it’s okay for us to do that as well. We just need to understand that mankind is not perfectly good because only God is that kind of good and good to that degree. But it’s okay to encourage one another, and praise others for their good works and achievements. We are not more pious for dehumanizing everyone of all morality. Paul often praises people in his letters. Even Jesus praises the churches in the book of Revelation for the things that they do right. Positive reinforcement is a good, healthy, and necessary thing and such praise should also be received positively. It’s okay to say, “thank you” and feel encouraged by people. But if you want to reflect the praise back to God after receiving a compliment by saying, “praise God,” that’s okay too. Pride is a matter of the heart, not mere external action, so you don’t need to feel guilty for not speaking in a certain way just because that’s what other people do.

“Woe is me.” This is often a phrase or expression that people use when they feel overwhelmed by their sin, God’s holiness, or the condition that they’re in. It’s often an intense feeling or the natural response that one has when they encounter the presence of God’s majesty like Isaiah did when he said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Usually what happens in the Bible when someone enters into God’s presence or an angel of the Lord appears to them, they are overwhelmed and often afraid but then Jesus or the angel tell them right after to not be afraid and to have courage. So, this isn’t a kind of attitude or feeling that God wants to have people to experience continually ongoing. There is no benefit or good that will come out of someone continuing to have a disparaging attitude about themselves, moping around everywhere with their sad face saying, “woe is me! My life is so terrible. I’m so sinful…” At that point, we’re into depression or self-pity, which need to be dealt with and the mind needs to be renewed in the truth. We need to be careful not to use biblical phrases to justify our sin of self-pity under the guise of a religious pretense of humility. We must also guard ourselves into thinking that humility is attained through thinking lower thoughts about ourselves, because it’s not. Humility is not thinking less of ourselves—but thinking of ourselves less.

Should we call ourselves sinners? No. We sin sometimes. But that doesn’t mean we’re sinners. At least, for those who have been born-again and their consciences cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God’s love. Our identity is in Christ, not in our sin. We have been made new creatures. The old has gone, behold, the new has come. In some of your Bibles, you may notice it says, “sinful nature” (NIV), but that would be an incorrect translation. Our nature has been made new and so there is no sinful nature. There is the flesh, which is the body, which is good, but sin is when the desires of the body are misplaced for something that is bad. As Christians, we don’t make a continual ongoing practice of sin since we have put off the old man with its passions and desires; and so sin is not what defines us—it’s not what characterizes us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Those things are not our labels anymore because, they are not who we are because Paul says, “such were some of you,” indicating that they are no longer that and then he goes on to say, “but you were washed, etc.” It is because Christ has cleansed us that we are no longer those things. That doesn’t mean we are incapable of sin, only that we do not continue practicing those things on a regular basis without repentance and we don’t continue to get better at those evils, since we are resisting them and pursuing righteousness because we are operating from a place of a cleansed, circumcised, and renewed heart. Our identity is no longer “sinner.” But rather, we are now children of God and heirs with Christ. It is important that our identity is in Christ and we see ourselves that way because our thoughts influence the way we feel and act. If we think that sinning is just who we are and so it is inevitable that we sin and give into temptation, then we are stealing our own faith away from having victory. We will become the way we think. If we give our minds into defeat, then we will live defeated. But if we give our minds to faith, we can have victory over the world. We also don’t want to get into a rut of sin, fear, shame, guilt, and anxiety over our sin because that is a recipe for disaster that dissolves the vigor of faith; and wherever there is faith lacking, there is sin. Therefore, we need to stop shaming ourselves or living in a culture of shame so that we can rise above our weaknesses to overcome the world. And for those who aren’t saved, sin and shame are supposed to bring them to the loving arms of Jesus so that they can be saved and set free by God’s abounding love for them. Sin and shame must leave when confronted with perfect love. The blood of Jesus that saves us is the love of Jesus that cleanses us. Come to His love and abide in His love. And do not allow religious culture or pietism to move you away from His love. The gospel is God’s love. It’s that simple. Don’t make it so complicated. Believe His love and be set free from sin and shame.

It’s possible that you could be living within a Chrisitan community that continually emphasizes how the Christian should suffer and that this is normal and expected. Which, is true. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Jesus warned us that “in the world you have tribulation” (Jn 16:33). After Paul and Barnabas were persecuted, they said, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Trials are expected (James 1:2; 1 Pet 1:6). The world is not going to be all sunshine and rainbows all the time when you get saved. That would not be an accurate expectation. And we certainly want to avoid the name-it and claim-it gospel and false prophets who are always promising good to come but those good things never come and they’re just leading people on and stealing people’s money. But having said all that, we also don’t want to have a mindset of death. We don’t want to always feel like victims and that we’re defeated and that suffering and unhappiness is just going to be our lot in life. Or, that God doesn’t care about blessing us or that He doesn’t care about us, because those things aren’t true. God does care about us, to be happy, enjoy ourselves, and have nice things. Those things aren’t wrong. To think that they are is a mindset of death. God is for happiness and pleasure but those things in themselves are not selfishness. You don’t have to feel guilty for enjoying yourself and treating yourself with something nice (provided, it’s not a sinful activity, of course).

God loves His children and He loves to bless them. In Psalm 67:6-7 it says, “The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.” God likes to show off to the world who His children are and who they are who love Him by blessing them and giving them riches. He used Israel for this purpose as His chosen nation to bring salvation to the world. He blessed the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. In Matthew 6:29-30 Jesus says, “yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!” God can abundantly supply all our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus and He can give us far more abundantly beyond what we ask or think because He never withheld the very best He had to give us, His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all. If that’s the case, would He withhold any lesser goods from us? He would not, as long as it is good for us an we can handle it. But we would do well to continue to keep this instruction in our minds: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Mt 6:33). Sometimes God doesn’t bless us because He’s refining us and molding us. For some people, if they received all the riches of the storehouses of heaven, they would not be faithful stewards of the gift, and the riches would corrupt their hearts. So sometimes, our good Father withholds from us for our good to protect us because our character may not be ready yet to receive it. It is even said of Adam and Eve that it was always God’s intention for them to eat from the tree of knowledge but only in time, when they had matured enough to handle such knowledge. But they ate from it too soon, though they were commanded not to, and it corrupted them. Riches are good and a blessing from God, but if they shall corrupt us, they are not good for us.

Before my closing statement, I feel like there is one more subject I need to address. Some of us need to stop hating ourselves and realize that it is a sin to hate yourself. And if you’re listening to music that feels oddly comforting but is also disparaging and self-depreciatory, you need to turn it off. It’s toxic. It’s killing you. It’s keeping you stuck. It’s keeping you depressed. I will never forget when I went to summer camp as a kid and one of the counselor’s mentioned that self-hatred and negative self-talk was a sin. I pondered why, and he pointed out that we are all created in God’s image and have inherent value and worth. God made each and every one of us. He designed us and crafted us. To hate on that is to hate what God has made. It is to ridicule His artwork and painting. It is a sin to curse someone else but it is also a sin to curse ourselves because we are both made in God’s likeness (James 3:9). From that moment on, whenever I had a disparaging thought about myself and was tempted to hate myself, I interjected that thought and said to myself, “stop it! Don’t even go there!” and it has been working well ever since. We need to fight our thoughts before our thoughts fight us. Our mind is a window to our soul. Whatever we let in can affect us spiritually—for better or worse. That’s why we are instructed to guard our hearts with all diligence, because from it flows the springs of life (Prov 4:23).

Concluding thoughts:

I find that the doctrine of Total Depravity is largely responsible for much of the disparaging language about mankind and within a church with that doctrine, people can get carried away in the things they say and in their rhetoric. However, the breadth of such a topic like that cannot be covered in this article.

Many of us today do not need to be reminded of how weak and helpless we are or how wretched and terrible of a sinner we are. We already know these things as Christians. We already view ourselves lower than we should. Some of us already even hate and despise ourselves. We don’t need help from religious jargon to encourage us further over the edge! Religious self-depreciation needs to go! Of course, this doesn’t mean we don’t talk about sin or God’s greatness or our unworthiness. It simply means that we need to avoid the strong rhetoric, stark contrasts, and the zealous and emphatic emotional language that puts too much emphasis on our sin and smallness. We actually need to have less confidence in ourselves and more confidence in the truth spoken with gentleness that this is sufficient for the Holy Spirit to use to convict sinners. The Holy Spirit does not need our emotionalism to do His work. The truth spoken plainly in gentleness and love is enough. We don’t need to exaggerate sin and hell because if we try too hard doing that, we’ll do a better job at convincing someone God hates them so much that they’ll find it difficult to accept God’s love by faith. Or, the listener just receives mixed messages and are indecisive because of the confusion put upon them. All of this we’re trying to avoid, even as I have explained in the beginning paragraph of this article. It would be best if we simply just put the spotlight on Jesus rather than ourselves because Jesus is salvation and healing and deliverance. We will never be healed by higher or lower thoughts of ourselves but only by higher thoughts about Him. I think that’s something we can all agree on.

Check out my article about how we are created in the image of God.