There are so many sayings we hear that sound good, and healthy but can be extremely toxic. Every day I see all over social media people encouraged to speak their truth, be themselves and be with whoever makes them happy. That sounds like helpful advice but it can lead to nothing but emptiness.
This is one of a three-part series of worldly advice versus biblical advice. If there are any other pieces of “advice” you heard that sounds good on the surface but may not actually be healthy let me know and I would love to research it!
“Be Yourself”
Matthew 16: 24-26, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
Before I get started I want to say that helping a person figure out who they are and what they value is a wonderful thing. As we go through life we figure out who we want to be and what we stand for. Telling someone to be themselves is not inherently bad. You probably mean “Don’t change your values based on who is in the room.” Which to a point can be biblical as long as your values line up with God’s. However, it gets dangerous when “be yourself” actually means “give in to yourself”. The world tells you to be whoever you want to be whenever you want to be it regardless of who it affects. This attitude can lead to being extremely selfish which is why the Bible says be who God wants you to be.
The reason we can not be completely ourselves is because we were all born into sin, which means ourself is sinful. Yes, God can completely redeem you and you can be made holy like him every day. However, we will always have temptation and struggles that we should not give into. If I am myself I give in to those temptations, I give into sin. I would turn selfish, un-empathetic, withholding, and many more attributes I do not care to have. That is why Jesus says, “deny yourself and follow me.” What he means is to deny your sinful nature and follow biblical teachings.
The world tells you to be yourself, the world says they love you just the way you are, but the world is infected by the enemy who is incapable of love. It is a false love that will lead you on a self-destructive path. If it were real love it would challenge you. The world doesn’t challenge you, the world makes you complacent. It may be telling you lies such as, “porn isn’t harmful to look at, no one will know if you cheat, you’ll bounce back from abusing your body every weekend, trust me you’re the exception.“ Lies that so many people, including myself, have believed.
Try to spend five minutes completely alone. No phone, music, podcast, Netflix, no distractions. Just purely alone with nothing but yourself. Where do your thoughts wander? Do you feel strong in God? Or empty in yourself? Could the world be using everyday distractions to keep us from seeing who we truly are when we give into ourselves? I am not saying those outlets are bad, but the enemy can use them for evil just like God can use them for good. When Paul was writing to the church of Corinth he heard about false teachers that made false promises and wanted the church to listen to these words from
2 Corthinitahs 11:12-14, “I have never been a burden to you, and I never will be. As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, no one in all of Greece will ever stop me from boasting about this. Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows that I do.
But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
The enemy knows how to make himself look appealing to you, he wants the Bible to look hateful when in reality biblical advice leads to protection, humility, and true love by being your godly self, something that only following Jesus can provide. The Bible isn't trying to stop you from living a life of joy and happiness it is trying to protect you from living a life of destruction.
Take time to reflect on how far you have come, the person you were versus the person you are. Personal growth is something we should all strive for instead of giving into yourself keep working on becoming the best version of yourself.
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