We must sacrifice our lust for human approval
We must sacrifice our lust for human approval, even the approval of those we deeply respect:
Matthew 6:1 Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Matthew 23:3,5,8-12 . . . But do not do what they do . . . Everything they do is done for men to see . . But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Luke 16:15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. . . .”
John 5:44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
John 12:43 for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
Matthew 10:35-37 For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me If we want both the approval of people and the approval of God, the prince of the world is keen to oblige by giving us human accolades plus the comforting illusion of supposing we have divine approval. A key component in the fight against delusion is a willingness to obey God, no matter what that entails. In the following, note the key to receiving the divine revelation as to who Jesus truly is:
John 7:17 If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
We must separate ourselves from the world: 2 Corinthians 6:15-7:1 . . . What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? . . . As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” . . . Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
For anyone to avoid the seductive, deceiving spirits at work in the world around us, daily dying to self and to worldly desires through spiritual union with Christ is essential.
Another key we’ve discovered is humility. We are called to be separate, but not to be smug – thinking we cannot fall – nor to think ourselves superior. Jesus “is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26 – emphasis mine), and yet this exalted, fiercely holy Being defended an adulterous (John 8:3-11) and approved of a woman of ill-repute kissing his feet(Luke 7:37-50). He partied both with notorious sinners (Luke 5:29; 7:34; 15:2; 19:7) and with cold-hearted, hypocritical Pharisees (Luke 7:36; 11:37; 14:1).
Some consider themselves too “holy” to associate with “sinners,” or too “righteous” to befriend hypocrites. Many are wise enough to avoid one of these traps. Disturbingly few, however, have such Christ likeness as to humbly reach out both to those considered lowlife and to the snobs who despise them. To have the grace to love both these sworn enemies is to be truly not of this world.
We are called to be separate from the world and yet embrace those ensnared by the world; to be not of the world and yet “go into all the world” (Mark 16:15); to not be snobs and yet befriend snobs. (Do we belong to that special class of hypocrite who are too snobbish to befriend snobs?)
Nothing makes us targets for deception like pride. The moment we take pride in having protected ourselves from worldly deception, our eyes glaze over as we head for the precipice. Our only protection is to do everything for God’s glory, not ours.
1 Corinthians 1:28,31 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are . . . Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 10:31 . . . whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake . . . (Emphasis mine)
2 Corinthians 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Not only does humility protect our minds from dangerously intoxicating pride, it also gets our focus off self-serving on to serving people in a God-like and God-glorifying way:
Philippians 2:5-8 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!
This, too, links back to dying to self through spiritual identification with the crucified Lord. The world can’t seduce a dead man.
We all long for some spiritual experience that will forever transform us. If dying to self were a one-off event that protects us for the rest of our lives, however, the Bible would not be crammed with warnings to Christians about deception and such Scriptures as:
1 Corinthians 8:2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
1 Corinthians 10:12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Ephesians 4:27 . . . do not give the devil a foothold.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 1 Peter 5:8-9 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . .
What continues to make us vulnerable is that resistance to worldly seduction hinges not on us once having died to self but on us staying dead. The Bible speaks of the necessity to daily dying to self:
Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
1 Corinthians 15:31 I die every day . . .
2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (Emphasis mine)
A living sacrifice can get off the altar at any moment.
Like branches that must remain in continual union with the vine, so are we with Christ. A severed branch looks fine at first. It might even sprout a little, but eventually it will wither.
When done through the spiritual power of a living faith in Christ Jesus, dying to self inoculates us against the world, but we are in grave danger if we think that this is like some vaccination that can be taken once and the immunity lasts for life. It is like medication that protects against certain strains of malaria but must be taken daily. Or, to change the analogy, dying to self stops the world from impregnating us. It works not like sterilization, however, but like the Pill. The danger is that we can miss sometimes, and blissfully think we got away with it.
Dying to self sounds frightfully dreary, but anything associated with God ends up thrillingly filled with life and joy and fulfilment. As explained in a link at the end of this webpage, dying to self is actually an exciting adventure, like a grub “dying” so as to become a butterfly.
So what does it take to die to self? It is a supernatural act that God achieves in partnership with us. We cannot do it without spiritual union with Christ and he will not do it without our fully committed cooperation. If we get serious about dying to self, he will take us seriously. If we are half-hearted about it, however, we might as well stop fooling ourselves and try to enjoy the world’s sugar-coated poison.
2 Timothy 2:3-4 Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs . . .
Jesus was not playing games when he warned us to count the cost. To put on a show comes cheaply but to truly follow Christ will cost us enormously. The cosy alternative, however, will end up costing us even more, and we’ll keep paying for all eternity.
There are three elements to dying to self.
1. We must put in a continual, determined effort to die to self.
It is not enough simply to pray for a certain spiritual experience. This is why the Bible keeps telling us, not God, to crucify our flesh, or whatever terminology various Scriptures use.
Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature . . .
Titus 2:11-12 11 For the grace of God . . . teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions . . .
1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. (Emphasis mine)
2. Dying to self is inspired by Christ’s example.
Our Leader never asks us to do anything he has not already done.
Philippians 2:5-8 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who . . . humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!
Philippians 3:10 I want to know Christ . . . and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death
1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
Hebrews 12:2-4 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame . . . Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
1 Peter 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
And think not only of Jesus agonizing on the cross but of him sweating, as it were, drops of blood, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours.”
3. Dying to self is supernaturally empowered through faith in what Christ achieved by swapping places with us on the cross.
Dying to self cannot merely be inspired by Christ, it must be empowered by him. If it is just our own efforts, it will achieve nothing.
John 15:5 . . . If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live
Galatians 2:20 . . . I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 5:16 . . . So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Galatians 6:14 . . . the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Colossians 2:20 . . . you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world . . .
Colossians 3:3 . . . For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
2 Timothy 2:11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness(Emphasis mine)
In Scriptures like the following we see this divine miracle brought about through Christ’s sacrifice, combined with the necessity of our effort:
Romans 6:2,4,6,8,10-15 . . . We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? . . .We were . . . buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. . . . For we know that our old self was crucified with him . . .
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
You can embrace a devout “Christian” lifestyle that is totally different from that of non-Christians, and merely have a different form of worldliness to them. You can have a clean, disciplined thought-life that you suppose makes you immune from worldliness and yet still end up ruled by human opinion rather than led by the Spirit of God. Your views can conform to those of revered Bible scholars and church leaders and you can be convinced your opinions are Bible-based and yet those views could still not be from God but from the same spirits who manipulate worldly thinking. Only those who are so sensitive to the Spirit of God as to be continually led by the Spirit are free from worldliness, and even such spiritual people could slip at any moment, just like Peter, praised one moment for receiving revelation not from humans but direct from heaven (Matthew 16:17,23), and the next moment rebuked for not having “in mind the things of God, but the things of men”.
When it comes to revelation from God, I’m in preschool. For the matters raised in this series of three webpage's, I have, at best, only a few pieces of the jigsaw. The full picture might look quite different to what one might guess from my few pieces. I am not trying to attack prosperity teaching or any Christians whose collection of pieces differs from mine. All I plead is that you seek God for his personal revelation as to what the full truth looks like and how he wishes you to translate that revelation into daily living.
© 2008, Grantley Morris. May be freely copied in whole or in part provided: it is not altered; this entire paragraph is included; readers are not charged and it is not used in a webpage. Many more compassionate, inspiring, sometimes hilarious writings available free online at www.net-burst.net Freely you have received, freely give. For use outside these limits, consult the author.