Summary On “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness”
How Self-Forgetfulness is the way towards freedom?
Let go of the self, and be free"
Up until the 20th century, most traditional cultures believed that “too high view of oneself” is the root cause of all social evils —why are people abused? Why is there violence? Traditionally speaking, the answer was “hubris” – Greek word meaning “Pride” or “Too high view of oneself”. In contrast, the modern culture has a different consensus which is completely opposite to the traditional consensus. Now we have a standing where our culture believes that the reason why people misbehave is because they have a low self-esteem or a low view of themselves. Earlier we thought people do bad things because they have a high view of themselves, now we think it’s because of a very low view of themselves. The reason why the current understanding is attractive to the modern society is because it propels an idea that all we have to do is just support people and build them up, contrary to the traditional way which was clamping down on people and restraining them. What is interesting about this passage is that it gives us an approach on how we see ourselves. It is completely different from both traditional and modern views. It’s neither high self-esteem nor low self-esteem.
The natural condition of the Human Ego:
The verse 6 of chapter 4 (“Then you will not be puffed up (physio) in being a follower of one of us over against the other”) has some interesting word usage— Paul should have used the word “hubris” which we saw before, to communicate pride or puffed up but rather he uses an unusual word “Physio”. The usage of this word is very rare in Paul’s writings. By using this word Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians the natural condition of the human ego. The word “physio” literally means overinflated, swollen, and distended beyond its proper size. Given that it’s such an evocative and interesting metaphor I think we can reflect on this image that he is trying to portray. The image suggests four things about the human ego; it’s empty, painful, busy and fragile.
Firstly, empty. The image points to the fact that at the centre of the human ego there is nothing but emptiness. Even though it’s puffed up its empty. Naturally the human heart tries to build an identity on something apart from God. In his book “Sickness unto death” Soren Kierkegaard says that “spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our lives, achieve our own sense of self worth and find a purpose big enough to give us meaning of life without God”. Let’s have a look at his verse from Ecclesiastes 4:4 which says “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” The author of the scripture is communicating that all toil and all achievement is springing from one person’s envy of another. So, the natural condition of the human ego is that it’s actually empty at the centre and it tries to build its identity.
Secondly, it’s also painful. Have you ever thought about this that we don’t think of a body part when it’s actually working fine, we don’t say “How good my elbow is working”, it’s only in pain that we notice that something is wrong with it. The ego often hurts because there is something incredibly wrong with it already. Since it’s big and distended it’s painful. It constantly draws attention to itself, it is always making us think about how we look and how we are treated. How many times we have heard people say and we ourselves say that “My feelings are hurt” but let’s think practically can feelings be hurt? It’s the ego that’s hurt. Walking around does not hurt my toes unless there is something already wrong with them. My ego won’t hurt unless there is something incredibly wrong with it already. It’s incredibly hard to even get through one day without being offended, feeling snubbed, or feeling stupid because there is something wrong with my ego already. It’s always drawing attention to itself given that it is in pain.
Thirdly it’s busy, what is it doing constantly? It’s constantly comparing and boasting. Look at the verse 6, Paul doesn’t use a full stop after the word puffed-up (Pride) rather he writes “Then you will not be puffed up (physio) in being a follower of one of us over against the other”. In his book mere Christianity C.S Lewis writes that pride in itself is competitive —We are not happy that we are rich or clever or good looking, we are happy that we are richer, cleverer and better- looking. In essence pride is the joy of having more. By being empty at the centre we become constantly busy in comparing and boasting, our egos are busy in creating a self-esteem resume. Many of us do things not because we like doing them but because we want to have an astounding resume, we want to be better than others.
Lastly the ego is fragile. It’s obvious when something is over-inflated it’s going to be fragile. A superiority complex and an inferiority complex are basically the same. Someone with an inferiority complex was once actually over-inflated. Empty, painful, busy and fragile. These are the natural conditions of the human ego. No matter what you throw into it, its thirst never gets quenched. It is insatiable. Paul while writing to the Corinthians is trying to address this, they are fighting because they have tremendous amount of pride, they don’t have joy over knowing Paul or Apollos, they simply use their relationship to feel superior to the other.
The transformed view of self:
In verses 3rd and 4th Paul communicates the status of his ego. In the preceding verse 1 and 2 he first reminds the Corinthians about his job and then he goes on to tell how little does he care if he is judged by them. The translation of the word judge would be verdict. In fact, his identity owes nothing to what people say. Practically every counsellor in the current era would advise that it should not matter to us what others think. In the current standards, the solution to low self-esteem is high self-esteem but Paul’s approach couldn’t be more different. First he cares very little if he is judged by the Corinthians but he goes one step further and says that ‘he will not judge himself either’. The fact that his conscience is clear doesn’t make any difference because a clear conscience doesn’t necessarily communicate that one can be innocent.
What would Paul say to those who believe in setting their own standards? It is a trap; boosting our self-esteem by living up to our own standards in not a great solution. Here is the problem, if you set high standards there is a fear that you won’t meet them, again hurting your self-esteem and if you set a very low standard ensuring you meet them, then you feel terrible thinking I am the type of person who sets low standards. Thus, it’s a trap.
Paul is one of the most influential leaders of the Christian era, he was a man of great stature and qualification but yet we see in 1st timothy 1:15 which says, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save the sinners of whom I am the chief”. This is so counter intuitive for us, and I doubt we would be able to do it. This is because we are constantly judging ourselves.
What Paul is trying to say that he is aware of all the sins in his life, but he doesn’t connect it to his identity. Neither does he sees an accomplishment and congratulate himself. He simple doesn’t make a connection. So, although he knows himself to be the chief of sinners, this fact is not going to stop him from doing the things that he is called to do. The territory that Paul is currently in is something astounding. He is at a place where his ego is not puffed up anymore, but it’s filled. It doesn’t anymore constantly draws attention to itself. He has reached a place where he is not constantly thinking about himself anymore. A gospel humble person is not someone who says how humble they are, or how a “nobody” they are, this would actually mean that they are self-obsessed. The thing that we would remember after meeting a gospel humble person is how totally interested they were in us rather than in themselves. The essence of gospel humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.
How to get that transformed view of self:
How did Paul reach this state of self-forgetfulness? He does tell us-Firstly, he doesn’t care what the Corinthians think and he doesn’t care what he thinks of himself. It also doesn’t make a difference to him if his conscience is clear; the word in the verse is “innocent” the accurate translation would be “Justify”. What Paul is saying is that the fact that his conscience is clear doesn’t justify him either. Why does he say that? Because in conscience one may think he is not a person with bad-intentions but this is not enough to conclude that he is justified.
Ultimately, you, me, Paul and everyone is looking for that verdict. The verdict being “You are important and valuable”. We look for this every day. This is why day after day we put ourselves in a trial in our attempt to fight the case and get that verdict. Someday, we feel nice when we are winning and someday we don’t feel nice when we are not winning. In other words Paul is saying that the problem with self-esteem whether high or low is that every single day we are in this courtroom and you never reach a day where you get the final verdict. There is a reason why Paul is using all this metaphor that resembles a scene in court. Paul has found the secret—the trial is simply over for him, it’s gone, it’s finished. How could this be? Paul puts it very simply; He knows that they cannot justify him, he cannot justify himself and what does he say-“It is the Lord who judges Me.”; it’s only the Lord’s opinion that matters to him.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only place where the verdict comes before the performance. In every other world view the performance leads to the verdict. Being a follower of Christ, the moment you started believing, God says “This is my beloved son in whom I am pleased” or as romans 8:1 which says “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who believe in Christ Jesus”. You see being a follower of Christ the verdict is already in and it’s the verdict that leads to the performance. I simple don’t have to do things to build my resume, or to just feel good about myself. I can help people for the joy of helping people, I can study for the joy of studying, and I don’t have to do things to fill up my emptiness — what a freedom? But how can this be? How can verdict come first and then the performance? Simply, it’s because Christ Jesus went to the trial, he went into the courtroom. It was an unjust trial but he did not complain. As a substitute for us he took the condemnation that we deserve. So I simply need to ask God to accept me because of what the Lord Jesus has done. If we are a believer in Jesus Christ, we can also like Paul say that “I don’t care what you think, I don’t care what I think of myself. It only matters to me what the Lord thinks of me”. We don’t have to be in the court day after day. Once and for all the court is adjourned.