Struggling with temptations of the flesh can certainly keep us busy. When we finally feel like we are getting mastery over them, and we are starting to feel that secure feeling of superiority over others, we think it is because we have been making real progress in our sanctification. But in reality, we are moving from a set of temptations that would drag us down into our more animal nature, and have progressed up to those temptations that would drag us up to the pinnacle of rock where the devil wants to tempt us to become like him.
Pride is the most insidious of sins. So long as you have self-consciousness, the raw material is there. And by “there,” I mean right there. This means that you might be attending a church that meets all your specifications—where there are no immodest dresses, no open containers of alcohol, no off-color stories after the service, or anything else you think important. And I am not saying that it isn’t important, but that is not my point here. There might be nothing outside of you that is morally objectionable, at least as far as your eye can see.
And yet, in that perfect environment, you have all you need for sin. And not just sin—you have all you need for the really big ones. This is when you are comparing yourself to your brother or sister, when your Bible is more underlined, or because you made it to psalm sing and they didn’t, or because you know the tenor part to the psalm and he doesn’t, or . . . take your pick. This is why the Bible is so insistent that as we worship we must come together with these others—considering them all better than ourselves.
I like this very much. One of the problems I had reading the Benedict Option is that we are the culture. We are the problem, so to speak. You can move all over the place, church shop, or isolate yourself in tiny communities, but our problems have a way of going with us. Pride certainly is portable. Adam and Eve were in a perfect environment and yet they still sinned. Often the problem is within us and not all around us.
This is a big struggle for me
Pride prevents me from going to church, but my country is so wicked, It is hard to consider the churches here even Christian.
Ouch. This hit a sore spot. Looks like I still have a lot of work to do. Thanks for the reminder PW.
I’ve often contemplated the cleverness of being prideful of our own humility!
YES!!!
it is like an infinite loop…
This post reminded me of this scene from Devil’s Advocate:
https://youtu.be/qGXvj2BjZLA
There’s probably a cool CS Lewis, GK Chesterton, or Charles Spurgeon quote that says it better, but it’s all I got right now :-)
As soon as we stray from the doctrine that we are all sinners, that is “all fall short of the glory of God”, as soon as we believe that we somehow approach being “good” at life in any respect, we will find someone who has/thinks/does/is less good than we, harming our communion with one another based on the equal need for a Holy and Wholly Good Savior.
Our depravity, as unpleasant as it is, brings us together, gives us purpose, and glorifies God eternally.
Who shall deliver me from this body of death?