Paul's Poor Self Esteem

I have a different take on it. I think it was not humility Paul was showing per se in these passages, but he was teaching us that we need to truly understand our own sinful hearts in order to fully depend on God. Here is one take on it: "The apostle Paul didn't have a probleem--he considered himself to be the problem" (Tom Matzat, Christ Esteem, p. 49). It's like that old acrostic that teaches you to put yourself last:
Jesus
Others
You

Perhaps we need to define terms here. I'm not sure you and I mean the same thing by "self esteem." Here is a definition from Wikipedia (not the best source). "Self-esteem is a term used in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth." Wikipedia also gives "self-love" as a synonym of self esteem, contra your view. This is where I emphasize the meaning of self esteem in this thread. So if you are not using self esteem to mean self love, then we are talking about two different things.

I think most of the time the term self esteem means self love. In fact, whenever a Christian psychologist or counselor discusses self esteem, they invariably tie it to loving others as we love ourselves, thereby (in their terms) mandating self love. I'm sure I could give quotes on this from the Minrith-Meier-Wichern textbook, Gary Collins, Larry Crabb, James Dobson and other books I have. But the Bible nowhere commands self love. Christ slimply assumed everyone loves themselves. In fact, the Bible condemns self love in 2 Tim. 3:1-2.