What the relationship between ego and self-esteem?

Romans 12:3Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Most basically, someone’s “ego” is that person’s sense of self-esteem. So people with inflated egos think too highly of themselves, while those with deflated egos think too little of themselves. Here Paul is telling us to be honest in our self-evaluation, using God’s truths about us to determine our self-concepts.

Psalm 139:13-16You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

We can be tempted to get our feelings of self-esteem (or lack of it) from what society declares or from what people say about us. And this can leave us feeling rejected and worthless. In this passage, however, we see David declaring that people are “wonderfully complex” and “marvelous.” Thus we can live with confidence knowing that the only one who really counts, our creator God, made us the way he wanted us to be and loves us. Ultimately, God’s opinion of us is the only one that matters.