“Ego” is not a Bible word. The Greek word egō simply means “I” or “me,” and there is nothing sinful about the word itself. Jesus used it. Paul used it. The problem is not that we have an “I.” God made us individual people with minds, wills, abilities, responsibilities, and personalities. The problem begins when the “I” starts moving into God’s place. That is why “E.G.O., Edging God Out” is actually a useful way to describe something Scripture deals with repeatedly, even though those particular letters are not found in the Bible.
We need to be careful with this, because it is very easy to turn “ego” into a psychological word and then start reading our own definition back into Scripture. The Bible speaks instead about pride, arrogance, boasting, self-seeking, vainglory, trusting in oneself, seeking the praise of people, forgetting God, resisting His will, and exalting oneself. Those are the things we need to examine, because that is where the Word of God actually gives us something solid to stand on.
The first place to show you is Genesis, because the issue begins there long before anybody ever used the word “ego.”
“And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” Genesis 3:4-5.
The Hebrew wording is ke-Elohim, “like God” or “like gods.” The word Elohim is the same Hebrew noun used for God earlier in the verse, and the form of the comparison is ke– (“like, as”) followed by Elohim. The text itself does not tell us to turn that sentence into a modern psychological definition of ego. What it does tell us is that the serpent challenged God’s word and offered the woman a reason to reach beyond the boundary God had established. The promise was that by taking the forbidden fruit, they would obtain something for themselves that God had not given them. The temptation involved knowledge, but it also involved distrust of what God had said and a desire to obtain what He had withheld from them.
That distinction matters. The Bible does not condemn knowledge. God Himself gives knowledge. The problem in Eden was not that human beings wanted to know something. The problem was that they were persuaded to reject God’s command in order to obtain something on their own terms.
That same human tendency appears again in Genesis 11, although the circumstances are different.
“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth,” Genesis 11:4.
The Hebrew phrase is na’aseh lanu shem, “let us make for ourselves a name.”Shem means “name.” The people were determined to establish themselves and their own reputation, and they specifically wanted to prevent themselves from being scattered. That is important because Genesis had already presented humanity with God’s command to fill the earth. Here they were determined to establish themselves together and make a name for themselves.
Again, I don’t want to force the word “ego” into the passage. The Bible doesn’t call Babel an “ego problem.” But it gives us a very clear picture of people organizing themselves around their own plans and their own name instead of living according to what God had said.
The Old Testament repeatedly warns about what happens when a person’s estimation of himself rises too high. Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” Proverbs 16:18. The Hebrew words translated “pride” and “haughty” mean: putting yourself high or exalted, better than anyone else, even God. Scripture is not saying that every kind of honor or greatness is evil; God Himself is glorious and exalted. The problem is the human heart lifting itself above its proper place.
That is why Deuteronomy 8 is so important to this subject. God knew exactly what could happen to Israel after they became prosperous.
“And you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. But you will remember the LORD your God: for it is he that gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto your fathers, as it is this day,” Deuteronomy 8:17-18.
The Hebrew says ko-hee for “my power” and o-tsem ya-dee for “the might of my hand.” The two expressions are placed together: “my power and the might of my hand.” God was warning them about the day when they would look at what they had and attribute it to themselves. The danger was not the possessing of wealth. The danger was forgetting God and then looking at what they possessed and saying, “My power and the might of mine hand has gotten me this wealth.” God did not deny that they had worked. He reminded them who had given them the ability to do the work.
That distinction is important. Scripture does not require us to lie about what God has given us. If you have a skill, you have a skill. If you have learned something, you have learned it. If you have worked hard, you have worked hard. If God has given you an ability and you use it faithfully, you don’t glorify Him by pretending you don’t have the ability. You glorify Him by remembering where it came from and what it is for.
Paul understood that. He could honestly describe his own labor without taking God’s place in the matter. He said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” 1 Corinthians 15:10.
That is a very different attitude from “My power and the might of my hand.”
Paul acknowledged what he had done, but he also acknowledged the grace of God working with him.
The New Testament gives us some very precise language for another part of this problem. Paul wrote:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, philautoi, covetous, philargyroi, boasters, alazones, proud, hyperēphanoi, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,” 2 Timothy 3:1-2.
There are several different words in that one verse, and Paul did not simply repeat the same word four times. Philautoi means “lovers of self.” Alazones refers to boasters or people who make exaggerated claims about themselves. Hyperēphanoi refers to the proud or arrogant. The list then also includes being unthankful. Those words belong together in Paul’s description, but they are not interchangeable.
That gives us something worth thinking about. Self-love, boasting, pride, and ingratitude can become connected, because once a person becomes occupied with himself, he can begin to see what he has as something he deserves rather than something he has received, like he feels entitled.
And Scripture gives us another word that gets even more specific when Paul writes to the Philippians:
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves,” Philippians 2:3.
The word translated “vainglory” is kenodoxia. It refers to empty glory or empty conceit. Paul puts it beside eritheia, selfish ambition or self-interest, and contrasts both with tapeinophrosynē, humility or lowliness of mind.
That is where this becomes more than a study about people who brag. A person can be ambitious without bragging. A person can want recognition without saying so out loud. A person can quietly arrange his life so that he is always the one receiving the credit. Scripture is concerned with what is governing the heart, not merely how loud the person is.
And this can happen in religious things just as easily as in worldly things.
Jesus said to the religious leaders, “I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that comes from God only?” John 5:41-44.
These were not people who had abandoned religion. They were religious people. Their problem was that the immediate approval of other people had become more important than the honor that comes from God.
John later wrote about some rulers who believed in Jesus but would not openly confess Him, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God,” John 12:43.
That is a sobering thing. A person can believe something is true and still be afraid to act on it because of what other people will think. The desire for human approval can become stronger than the desire to please God.
Jesus addressed that problem very directly in Matthew 6 when He warned about doing righteous acts, praying, and fasting in order to be seen by men. The outward action could be religiously correct while the motive underneath it was wrong. The issue was not whether the person prayed or gave. The issue was whom he was trying to impress.
That is exactly what we see in the Pharisee’s prayer in Luke 18:
“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted,” Luke 18:9-14.
The Pharisee’s problem was not that he had fasted or tithed. Those were things he could properly do. His problem was that his righteousness had become something he used to elevate himself above another person. Jesus specifically introduced the parable by saying that it was about people who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.”
That gives us another piece of the puzzle. Pride does not always stop with thinking highly of ourselves. It can cause us to look down on somebody else.
Paul warned believers about another version of the same thing when spiritual gifts were involved. The Corinthians had many gifts, but they were having trouble with how they used them. Paul told them, “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you,” 1 Corinthians 12:21. God had arranged the members of the body so that they needed one another. A gift was never supposed to become a reason for one member to make himself independent of the others.
That is important because EGO can enter ministry through comparison. “I can do this better.” “I know more.” “I am more important.” “They need me, but I don’t need them.” Scripture keeps bringing us back to the fact that God is the One who gives the gifts, and He decides where those gifts belong.
Then there is the matter of correction. Proverbs says, “Whoso loves instruction loves knowledge: but he that hates reproof is brutish,” Proverbs 12:1. A person who cannot be corrected has placed his own understanding in a dangerous position. He has effectively said, “My judgment is not to be questioned.”
That is not wisdom. Proverbs says, “He that refuses instruction despises his own soul: but he that hears reproof gets understanding,” Proverbs 15:32.
A teachable heart is one of the clearest protections against self-exaltation because a teachable person understands that he does not know everything.
Paul said something similar about knowledge when he wrote, “And if any man think that he knows any thing, he know nothing yet as he ought to know,” 1 Corinthians 8:2. In that same passage he had just said, “Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies,” 1 Corinthians 8:1. The Greek physioō means to puff up or inflate. Paul was not attacking knowledge; he was warning about what knowledge can do when it becomes a source of self-importance. And this is why humility in Scripture is not pretending to be stupid, weak, or incapable. It is being willing to recognize reality without making ourselves the center of it.
Paul said, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith,” Romans 12:3.
Not to think of himself more highly than he ought.
Notice that Paul did not say, “Think nothing of yourself.” He said, “Think soberly.” In other words, think accurately. Don’t inflate yourself, and don’t falsely diminish yourself either.
Jesus gives us the clearest example of what that looks like because He knew exactly who He was, yet He never operated independently of the Father.
He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me,” John 5:30.
Later He said, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak,” John 12:49.
And in Gethsemane, facing what was before Him, He prayed, “Nevertheless not my will, but Yours, be done,” Luke 22:42.
Jesus was not lacking in identity. He was not insecure. He was not powerless. He knew who He was and what He had been sent to do. His submission to the Father was deliberate obedience.
That is why John the Baptist’s words make sense when people began turning their attention toward Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease,” John 3:30.
John understood his assignment. His purpose was not to build his own following and hold onto it. He was there to prepare the way and point people to Christ. His decrease was not self-destruction. It was the proper movement of attention toward the One he had been sent to announce.
There is another passage we need to consider because it deals with a very ordinary form of EGO: making plans as though tomorrow belongs to us.
James wrote: “Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeares for a little time, and then vanishes away. For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now you rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil,” James 4:13-16.
James was not telling Christians that making plans is wrong. He was confronting people who spoke about the future as though they controlled it. Their plans were already settled in their minds, including where they would go, how long they would stay, what they would do, and what they would gain. What was missing was any recognition of God’s sovereignty.
That is a different problem from ordinary planning. We can make plans. We should use wisdom. We can work hard and prepare for tomorrow. But we are not God, and we do not know what tomorrow will bring.
The whole matter becomes much clearer when we understand worship. The opposite of self-exaltation is not simply “thinking less about yourself.” The Bible directs us toward God.
Psalm 115 tells us: “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake,” Psalm 115:1.
The Hebrew word kavod means glory or honor. In this verse, kavod is כָּבוֹד, and the psalm deliberately directs that glory away from “us” and toward God’s name. The Hebrew wording is lo lanu, YHWH, lo lanu, ki le-shimkha ten kavod—“Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory.”
And then we find the same thing at the end of Scripture. “And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,” Revelation 4:9-11.
That is where the matter finally comes down. The elders have crowns, but they do not treat those crowns as something that establishes their own greatness. They lay them before the One who gave them everything.
So when we talk about E.G.O., Edging God Out, we are not talking about getting rid of the human “I.” We are talking about what happens when the creature forgets the Creator. We are talking about the point at which our own name becomes more important than His name, our own praise becomes more important than His approval, our own judgment becomes more important than His Word, our own plans become more important than His will, or our own accomplishments become something we claim as though we created the ability ourselves.
Paul put the whole matter into one question: “For who makes you to differ from another? and what have you that you did not receive? now if thou did receive it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?” 1 Corinthians 4:7.
That is a question worth considering deeply. What do I have that I did not receive? And if I received it, why would I take the glory for myself?
That is where EGO begins to lose its footing, because once we remember the Giver, we can properly understand what we have been given. We can use our minds without worshiping our own understanding. We can have abilities without worshiping ourselves because of them. We can accomplish things without pretending that we accomplished them independently of God. We can receive honor without living for the praise of people. We can know who we are without forgetting whose we are.
And when we remember that, we can say with the psalmist, “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but Unto Your Name Give Glory,” Psalm 115:1.
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Prayer:
Father, I praise You and I worship You because You alone are worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. You are the giver of wisdom and understanding, the source of every good and perfect gift, and there is none like You. I thank You for who You are, for Your mercy, Your truth, Your patience, and Your faithfulness.
Lord, search my heart and show me anything in me that has begun to take Your place. If I have lifted myself up, sought the praise of people, trusted too much in my own understanding, or taken credit for something You have given me, forgive me. Teach me to recognize the difference between using what You have given me and taking glory that belongs to You.
Keep me teachable. Keep my heart willing to receive correction, willing to listen, and willing to change when Your Word shows me that I am wrong. Help me never to become so convinced of my own understanding that I stop listening to You.
Father, remind me every day that whatever I have received has come from Your hand. Let me use every ability, every gift, every opportunity, and every bit of understanding You have given me for Your purposes and not for my own glory.
Help me to know who I am without forgetting whose I am. Let my life point people toward You rather than toward me. When I accomplish something, let me remember You. When I am praised, let my heart turn the praise back toward You. When I am corrected, give me the humility to listen. When I make plans, help me remember that my life and my future are in Your hands.
Above everything, Father, keep me from edging You out. Let my heart remain Yours, my mind remain open to Your Word, and my life remain available to Your will.
Not unto me, Lord, not unto me, but unto Your name be the glory.
In Jesus’ Holy, precious name, amen and amen.
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© AMKCH 2026
Don’t take my word for it. Like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so. Open your Bible, study God’s Word for yourself, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth. Don’t simply accept my conclusions. If what I’ve written agrees with Scripture, hold fast to it. If it doesn’t, let God’s Word be your final authority.
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image done by imagefree at my direction. If any of these people looks like you or someone you know, that is purely coincidental. They are not.
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