“For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world.” 1 John 2:16
September 6, 2022
Pride parades are not limited to special events on the calendar. Pride of life parades daily everywhere. Love of the world attacks us on three fronts. The third is how we want to be admired. Craving attention has a multitude of ways to satisfy itself. Pride of life is glorying in oneself and what one has. It is making one’s public image more important than the glory of God or the well being of others. Does this not make us, at the least, feel a bit uncomfortable? It should because the world celebrates being proud about one’s place and position in the world. Racial identity, the right clothes labels and fashions, income status, make of car, house, job, the status symbols we can crave, those things that we create to define our identity. The internet world flourishes with opportunities to exalt oneself: An impressive following on Twitter, Instagram and Snap Chat pictures, the number of Facebook friends we have. How easy it is to want to impress others with who we are or what we have done or what we have. The church is not exempt from susceptibility to the pride of life as we elevate certain spiritual gifts over others (e.g. the Corinthian church), preachers craving fame for drawing bigger crowds, and those in the congregation who brag about the successful church they attend. Christian colleges and seminaries succumb to the pride of life in wanting the respect of the secular world by academic status pursued in having professors with degrees from liberal schools and making theological compromises with evolution and the moral revolution. What must we do who follow Christ? The greatest remedy for love of the world is love for Jesus Christ. When our desire is to please Him, when our affection is set upon Him, the old sweethearts of this world will no longer hold their same attraction. H
“Resolve, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done, when I come to die.” Jonathan Edwards