“And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts …” (Luke 16:15)
Does it matter what people think of you? Not really. Their estimation could be 100% incorrect. Neither does it matter what you think of yourself. You could be equally off, thinking more highly of yourself than you should; or, not seeing yourself the way God sees you.
Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” not because He cared what men thought, but to set up His next question: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s response was correct because it was according to the Father’s estimation of his master.
Ultimately, all that matters is who you are in the sight of God. Some things about you cannot and will not change, you were born either male or female. You can try to change that, and believe you are something other than the Lord made you, but He did not make a mistake when you were born. “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?” (Isaiah 29:16)
When we get into the business of “remaking ourselves” after some blueprint that pleases us we surely turn things upside down. We arrogantly tell our Maker that He didn’t know what He was doing when He made us. But, at the end of the day, we are who He says we are, not who we say we are.
And then there is our spiritual identity before God. We are right or wrong before God. We can justify ourselves and think we’re righteous, but if we’re not doing justly we are not righteous. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” (1 John 3:7)
People have a great tendency to deceive themselves about themselves. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Truly, without knowing God’s estimation of us, we cannot know ourselves.
We may have hoodwinked every single person as to who we are. They may call us “she” when we are a “he”; they may call us righteous when we are wicked. We can also deceive ourselves as to our identity. But God knows who we are before Him. Jesus did not care what flesh and blood had to say about Him. What God knows matters more than what people think. Make sure you know yourself as you are known to the Father above.