I fear nothing so much, and there is nothing I have so much reason to fear, as myself. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
People will usually fear most anything but themselves, and we might add that people fear God because they are afraid that He will do something that will hurt self. But if we really think the situation through with Scripture as our guide, when we follow our own hearts we are following a fool. When we will only believe what our brains can reveal to us, we are following a very limited and fallen understanding. When we make ourselves the standard of good or bad depending on how it influences our worldly well-being, we are simply being the standard of good rather than bowing in submission to the living God. We have every reason in the world to fear that our very self will blind us to the truth, lead us into sin, deceive us about our spiritual state, and eventually lead us into everlasting torment.
Part of the reason that we don’t fear self is because we don’t think of ourselves as evil and as having evil propensities and evil qualities. We don’t think of ourselves (if unconverted) as being children of the devil. We don’t see those things because we are blinded by self-love and pride and in that we make self as the standard. We think that if it does not harm us, there is no harm and it is good. But if something does harm our thoughts about self or self in any way even to the point of just causing us discomfort, we think of that as bad.
Mark 7:20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
If we viewed ourselves in light of the Scriptures, for example, the text just above, we would see things in a totally different way and see ourselves as being more dangerous to our own souls than anyone else. If other people had the power to have evil thoughts that would damn us, we would fear them. If other people had the power to have slander, pride, and foolishness come from them and damn us we would fear them. But all of those things and more come from our own heart and each one adds to our damnation (if unconverted) and we don’t fear ourselves. It is an amazing blindness that settles in over the eyes and hearts of those ruled by pride and self.
Human depravity is not recognized for what it really is. It is not just that people do things that are sin, but people are sinners. This is to say that their very nature is sinful and all that they do is sinful. As from a polluted spring flows polluted water, so from the very polluted core (polluted heart) of man flows sin. All the thoughts of a person and all the desires of the person flow from the polluted spring of the heart. All the intents and motives of a person flow from the polluted spring of the heart. All the actions and deeds of a human being are really the results of what flows from the polluted spring of the heart. Each human being should look upon self as very, very dangerous to the truth and to an eternally well-being. All that an unregenerate person does defiles the person as s/he stands before God and adds kindling to the fire of eternal wrath, which is treasuring up wrath. That is something to fear.
But should a regenerate person fear self? Yes, the regenerate person has a lot to fear as well. We are to love God with all of our being, but the flesh has not been completely done away with and so people will love the flesh and the world too much. The regenerate person has to battle the flesh, pride, the devil, and the world. But the devil uses the self to wage his war with. The world is after the fleshly self as well. It is the self that studies so much with its eye on receiving the honor of men. It is the self that will pray in such a way as to get men to amen the prayer and gain honor for being good at prayer or even as a prayer warrior. It is the self that stands in so many pulpits Sunday after Sunday and craves the applause and honor of men rather than the glory of God. It is the self that will listen to sermons wanting to get the ears tickled. It is self that will go to conference after conference and desire to be known for that. It is the self that will attend many Bible studies and want to be known for that. The self is our most dangerous enemy and yet it is free to move around and even attack while people are not aware of its awful wounds.
God Loves... Himself 
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