The Myth Of Narcissus

Many different accounts of the Narcissus story survive.

Some say he was deceived into thinking his reflection was a beautiful woman and drowned after falling into the water.

Others say he intended to end his own life because he discovered how good-looking he was and couldn't handle the guilt of having to reject so many lovers.

The story is retold by preachers (Rick Warren), story-tellers (Max Lucado), and even theologians (Walt Russell) in so-called Christian culture. And they always tell the story in exactly the same way:

Narcissus was a man who liked to think about himself.
People who think of themselves are selfish and utterly doomed.

Perhaps their warning is suffeciently heavy-handed, but lacking in direction ... or perhaps lacking true direction altogether. Consider the command of the apostle:

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Romans 12:3

The Scriptures do not promote selfishness -just as the Apostle commands us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.

But rather than calling 'unselfishness' or 'self-less-ness' the highest virtue, Paul exhorts his audience to self-examination and love.

"...think of yourself with sober judgment..."

This is the very person Warren, Lucado, and Russell tell us not to think about.

The differing factor between a pagan thinking of himself in confidence and a believer thinking of himself in the measure of faith God has given him is this: the pagan considers himself in a phony way, but the true believer thinks of himself with sober judgement.

Paul does not command believers to stop thinking about themselves, but to seriously consider their motives, their actions, their mistakes, and the strange and wonderful regard God has for His children in spite of everything.

Are there confident people in the world with high self-esteem? Yes, indeed there are.

Sadly, self-confidence is little more than the facade people put over their self-hatred.

The difference between the pagan and the disciple lies not in the object of their consideration, but the way they think: one in a phony way, and the other in perfect seriousness.

Sober judgment leads to repentence.

If a man is to take into account not only his actions, but also his motives, he will see there is much in his life to repent of and the depravity of all worldly distinctions and approval.

Yet such a man who has lost all worldly love for himself has one element in his favor: that God, the maker of the heavens and the earth who does not tire and knows all things, that this Almighty Being concerns Himself for that single man.

The man who considers his value in such terms in the measure of faith God has given him will be able to accept and regard himself without the pagentry and masks that the children of the world use to esteem themselves.

Praise God, who has given us the strength to love not only theives, prostitutes, and evil-doers, but also sinners such as ourselves, and praise Him for graciously giving us along with His Son all things.