Timothy Keller's "Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness" Overview.

 Hello!  I have a short book written down by Timothy Keller, American pastor and theologian, and I want to review and overview the book. However, I will not include too much, as it is not a free book and I cannot give all its content away.

Timothy Keller's first part simpky asks us "How do we know someone has been changed by the grace of God". He then focuses on 1 Corinthians 3-4 for the answer. This is 1 Corinthians 3:21-4:7:

21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas[a] or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

The Nature of True Apostleship

4 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Note that the Bible Version in his book is ESV, while this is NIV. 

From these thirty verses, he concludes the answer. This is the summarized commentary on the thirty verses: The church at Corinth was in a bad state, as many boasted like "Oh, I listened to Apollos!" (Apollos was a prominent priest there). The church was split and had become a warzone of groups. Paul tells them, and us, that the root of the conflict is pride and boasting. And that is the reason for every conflict: Ego and Pride. Paul (the author of Corinthians) commends us to be humble and not to compare ourselves to one another boastingly. For a very long time, the usual reason of conflict was a too high self esteem. But it has changed with the dawn of the modern world, where now we think strife is rooted on the opposite: too low ego and insufficient self esteem. 

He then mentions Lauren Slater (a psychologist)'s book, which is relatively obsecure, called "The Trouble with Self-Esteem". She (Lauren Slater) says that people with big egos and those who boast actually are more of a threat than those of low self-esteem. One mark of a God-changed person is someone who does not boast and is not proud. 

Paul says that our human ego is much larger than what it should be. This is the usual, natural condition and state of the regular human ego. There are four attributes of our too-big natural human ego: Empty, Painful, Busy, and Fragile. Empty is because it puts ourselves in the center rather than what should be in the core: God. It overhypes and specializes ourselves much more than how we actually are.

It is painful because our ego only jumps in when something concerning: something missing or something hurt. It is busy because it always attemptd to boast and compare to another person. And that is the very nature of pride: it must compare. Our pride can only display if something else is comparable to. For example, if you are intelligent, yet everyone else is, there is no reason to boast. This might make you feel good once you boast, but in the presence of someone greater, you feel defeated. It destroys pleasure. Our ego also drives us into doing something we don't need to do, or don't actually like doing, but it pushes you to do it because you want to compare. It is fragile - it is fragile because our ego causes dislike to ourselves, which causes us to crush our own ego. And it always does it, since it keeps wanting more. 

These four attributes: Emptiness, Painfulness, Business, and Fragillity displays the ugly truth of our natural human ego.

The second part talks about the optimal, should-be ego. In the first few paragraphs, it mentions the first virtue of an optimal God-changed ego: Unconcerned. Unconcerned about others' opinions or judgements on yourself. You should also be unconcerned about your own view of yourself. Paul did not set his own standards or goals which he built. He did not pursue the standards of himself, or other people. So: Unconcerned on Others' View, and Unconcerned on your View. Furthermore, the third transformed virtue is Self-Depravity. You must see yourself as a sinner. And Paul did. And think about it this way: If you were Paul, what would you think of yourself: You have went on multiple missionary journeys throughout the known world, you have been shipwrecked, threateaned and jailed, you have went from Jerusalem to Rome to spread the Gospel, from Ephesus to Corinth to set up churches. Yet, Paul saw himself as a terrible sinner of many moral flaws. You must be honest and aware of your flaws. Also, it gets even crazier. You probably know that Paul used to kill lots of Christians before he became a Christian and a missionary. Yet, he did not say "I used to be a terrible sinner", but rather "I am a regular sinner". (However, we still must follow wise guidance of others, but not pirsue what their standards or views on you are). We must follow the standards of God.

We must be extremely transformed to have that view of ourselves' standards and others', but we must strive to achieve that. In a way, we must be self-forgetful, as it takes the judgement of others as oppurtunities to change, but does not be offended by them, and it does not also boast, and sees itself as sinners. 

In the third part, it tells us how do we achieve this view.  Naturally, we are all searching for someone or something to judge us. People might search for a good person and compare themselves to him or her. Some might judge them from themselves. But the true judgement is from the Lord. We cannot care what WE think, we cannot care what OTHERS think, but instead, what the Lord thinks.

Question of Reflection: Think of a time when your ego struck you in some way - whether it compared you to somebody else or pushed you to do something you really did not want to do, or anything else caused by it. What could you have done differently?