Question: What are some of the signs or symptoms of “SELF” and how does it manifest itself?
Answer: SELF is a predominant part of the depraved nature which our father Adam received because of his disobedience to the direct commandment of God. By this means he lost the image of God (righteousness and true holiness) (Colossians 3:10; Eph 4:24). The image of God was defaced and in its place Adam received a fallen, depraved, sinful nature. Not only was this so, but all his posterity received the same nature that Adam had. Romans 5:12, says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” This text proves sin to be a universal thing and that is so because of one man’s sin. Romans 7:14 says, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” But how did this come about? Who sold him under sin? The answer is clear from the above text (Rom 5:12); it was Adam. Paul refers to himself (I) here, but actually he stands as a representative of the whole human race. We are all in that same condition depraved in our nature. This depraved nature has a side loaded toward self and that is the side that keeps turning up in all unregenerated men.
Self and the depraved, sinful nature are so intertwined together that one cannot be destroyed without destroying the other also. They must go together. Let me give you an example. I knew a man who had a brain tumor. Surgeons opened up his head and performed an operation, but they reported that the roots and runners of the tumor were so intertwined throughout the brain that they could not possibly get it all without completely destroying him as a person and reducing him to a mere “vegetable.” Therefore they just took off the top of the tumor, and as it grew and built up pressure in his head, they repeated the operation in the same way. The man underwent nine of these operations before his death. I once saw an advertisement of a cold medicine which said, “Kill a cold where a cold lives.” Another place in the ad said, “A cold is an internal infection.”
This is the way with the self-life. You have to kill it where it lives in the depraved nature. It is all intertwined in there and one has to have that nature destroyed in order to get it. Rom 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” The “old man” in this text refers to that depraved, sinful nature. Romans 6:11 says, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Here is expressed life without the “I” or “self” in it. Galatians 5:24 says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” All of these texts refer to the old depraved, sinful nature and the self-life which is an integral part of it.
This experience (crucifying or dying out to self) is obtained through consecration and faith; in the Scriptures this is called “sanctification.” Romans 12:1-2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” And I Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification,…” Rom 12:1-2 explains how one is sanctified.
Self is something we cannot serve God with. Jesus knew this; the very first condition of discipleship that He laid down was to deny one’s self. In Matthew 16:24, he said, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” The self-life is so opposite to the Spirit and nature of Jesus Christ that it is obnoxious to Him and we just cannot serve Him with it.
This all being true, let us look at some of the signs and symptoms of self:
1. It will seek its own (its own way, profit, welfare, pleasure, comfort, and satisfaction) rather than deny itself. In Phil 2:21, Paul said this by way of lament, “For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” In I Corinthians 10:24, he said, “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.” In Philippians 2:4, he said, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” We see in these texts that self-seeking, self-promotion, and self-pleasing have no place in the Christian life.
2. Self will demand the uttermost farthing (Matthew 5:26) rather than go the second mile (Matthew 5:41). Try to straighten up anything or seek a reconciliation with a man who has been hurt or offended and is dominated by self and you will find him “slapping you in the face” instead of turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39). He will be very exacting, demanding, and hard to deal with. This is just the way self behaves itself.
3. Self will contend for its own way and if not pleased, just plain won’t play rather than submitting and cooperating to make any given project a success. In Ephesians 5:21, Paul says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” This is the way of the Spirit and the way Christians are to behave, but Self will never behave this way.
4. Self will get its feelings hurt and pout when crossed, disappointed, or its proposals rejected, rather than crucifying self and manifesting the Spirit of Christ who pleased not Himself (Romans 15:1-3).
Self was manifested in the prodigal son in his seeking his own way, personal interests, and freedom to do his own thing with utter disregard for the feelings of his father and his father’s household. The prodigal’s brother sought to promote his own interests in another way, but showed the same contempt for his father and his father’s feelings; in the end he was as obnoxious as his brother. He missed the kingdom of God, too. Self is always obnoxious, and all who follow its pernicious ways will miss the kingdom of God.
SELF thrives on attention and will pay any price to get it whether good or bad. Sometimes when things have been going rather smoothly for a time, a self-dominated person who has been starved of attention will “throw a spell” or “act up,” and create a commotion, or act naughty in order to get the attention he craves.
Now I will identify SELF as a murderer and insurrectionist. He may not like that exactly, but he will pay that price, too, in order to draw attention to himself. Barabbas was a murderer and insurrectionist and he stands as a topnotch type of SELF. He stood directly opposed to Christ in Pilate’s judgment hall that day. Pilate, in his effort to release Jesus and save Him that day, picked out the worst prisoner he had and set him up against Christ and said to the Jews, “Which one of these two shall I release unto you?” It would appear obvious, so Pilate thought, that the choice here would be an easy one that the Jews would choose Christ rather than Barabbas. But they didn’t. They said, “Crucify Jesus and give us Barabbas.” In the anti-type of this, the SELF-LIFE stands directly opposed to the Christ-life in the hearts and lives of many people. SELF will murder the Christ-life in your soul. There is no possible grounds for coexistence of the two in the same heart. Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters:…” Matthew 6:24. Folks, when Jesus says a thing cannot be done, we should just as well accept it that it can’t be done and quit trying. A choice must be made: We must in our hearts either say to give us SELF and let the Christ-life die; or say to give us Christ and let the SELF-LIFE die.
SELF is also an insurrectionist and will be continually and perpetually rising up in rebellion against the laws of the kingdom of God and the kingship of Jesus Christ. Jesus knew that no man could serve Him while SELF was prevalent in his life, so He just said for us to unload it at the start if we intended to follow Him. In Matthew 16:24, He said, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Self-denial is the first condition of discipleship.
We have another good example in type of SELF the Gibeonites. They dealt wittingly and deceitfully with Joshua and the elders of Israel and tricked them into making a league with them. (9th chapter of Joshua.) Joshua and the elders very soon learned that they had been tricked and deceived by the Gibeonites but because of the league between them they could not destroy them. But they were reduced to perpetual bondage and servitude to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Israelites. SELF must be put under. Paul expressed it this way: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” I Corinthians 9:27. Paul knew the destructive power of the self-life and of the flesh so he just put it down, kept it down, and never gave it a chance to assert itself at all. God help you and me to do the same thing with this pestilent fellow.
When a person actuated by SELF is hurt, he will go about seeking someone to tell his hurt to in order to receive their sympathy. Every person actuated by SELF relishes sympathy. They feed on it and are nurtured by it. But the sad part is that they will not shrink from destroying by slander and gossip the person nearest to them in order to get sympathy. The saddest part of all is that he is actually destroying himself while, at the same time, being deceived into thinking he is building himself up because of the sympathy he is receiving from another. This makes the one extending sympathy in such a case a contributor to the delinquency and destruction of the one seeking sympathy.
This course of action is only feeding and nourishing that which one should be seeking to mutilate and destroy. God permits hurtful things to happen to us to give us an opportunity to further destroy the self-life out of us. If we cooperate with God at this point, humble our hearts and submit to Him, the desired end will be obtained. But if we resent, buck up against it, and go the sympathy seeking route, we will feed and nourish that self-life with all of its destructive powers within us and weaken ourselves to meet our problems in life.
The courses we should follow in such cases are these: (1.) When you are hurt and feel starved for sympathy and feel you must get to some certain individual as soon as possible to talk things over with him, just remain separate and aloof from him and refuse to discuss your problem even if you are with him. (2.) When you feel that you just have to say something and if you don’t say something you will burst, that is the best time in the world to just keep quiet and say nothing. (3.) When you feel strongly inclined to pout, just get more talkative and more involved than usual in the activities going on around. (4.) When you feel that you just want to give someone a good “letting alone,” just get closer to him and become more conversant and friendly with him than ordinarily. By these means and more we are cooperating with God in those times to destroy the self-life and increase the Christ-life within us.
We are told by the experts that self-preservation is the first law of nature. The Bible verifies this, too. In Job 2:4, we read, “…All that a man hath will he give for his life.” Therefore, I conclude that if you could only see the power of SELF to destroy your health and happiness here and your eternal life hereafter, you would be inclined to resent, reject, and stoutly resist it by every effective means available to you.
