People-Driven Holiness: A Dangerous Pursuit [Part Three]

 IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PART TWO, CLICK HERE TO READ..... 

Fifth, people-driven holiness is doing things to teach others. 

There is a “sacred guilt” that I sometimes carry in my heart. The guilt is, “How can I tell others if I don’t practice it myself.” So I try doing things to be an example to others. This seems good on the surface, for did not Paul write, “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works?” (Tit. 2:7)

However, the problem here is that the focus is more on making others do what they must do rather than to walk personally in obedience to God’s Word. The danger of being an example for others is doing things just for the sake of setting an example rather than becoming obedient to please God who has unconditionally accepted us in Christ Jesus.

It is good that we should practice before we teach, but we must be careful not to practice in order to teach. Our devotion to prayer, intercession, Bible study, church fellowship, evangelism, and all good works, must emanate from our love for the Lord who loved us and laid His life for our sins on the cross.

Imagine that I start spending time with my wife for 30 mins every day. My wife, surprised to see my radical behavior, asks the reason behind my change. I tell her, “You see, I want the husbands in our church to spend time with their wives. So, I decided to spend time with you so that I can tell them to do the same. I don’t want to tell them that which I don’t practice.”

This sounds heroic, but would my wife be impressed with such an attitude? She would only be delighted if I do things because I love her. It disappoints her to know that what I do for her is actually to tell others to imitate me.

An example should be the outcome of our pursuit to please God. We pursue to obey God as an expression of our love for Him because He first loved us. Doing things only for the sake of example in order to teach others displeases God who commands us to do all things for His glory.

Conclusion:

Much of our holy conduct that we manifest among people seem to be driven by our desire to please others, to get their attention, and to feed our image with a good impression. Our hearts are so consumed with self-glory that we may pursue holiness for self-gratification.

When our ulterior motives will be examined and exposed on the Day of Judgment, I think, all our good works may look like filthy rags before the holy God. May the Lord Jesus, who commanded us to deny ourselves and follow Him, deliver us from this bondage of self-absorption.

Remember, only that which is practiced with a sacred consciousness to obey God, to please God, and to glorify God is what is considered as holy before God. People-driven holiness is no holiness at all; it is only hypocrisy and pride.

Therefore, let us constantly examine our hearts in the light of the Holy Spirit, preach the gospel of Christ to ourselves, repent of our sins, pray fervently for a God-fearing heart, and seek the glory of God in all things.

May I close this message with words of one of the Puritans cited by Ernest Kevan on the imperfection of our works: "We do not do all that is commanded but come short of our duty, and that which we do is imperfect and defective in respect of manner and measure; and therefore in justice deserves punishment, rather than reward: and consequently the reward, when it is given, is to be ascribed to God’s undeserved mercy and not to our merit."

 Return to Read Part One 

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People-Driven Holiness: A Dangerous Pursuit [Part Two]

 IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PART ONE, CLICK HERE TO READ..... 

Third, people-driven holiness is doing things to get the attention, praise, and applause of people. 

In the first point, I shared about how admirably we may behave in the presence of others. In the second, how we want our image to be guarded when we fail. In this third point, I want to speak about how we do good things deliberately for others’ approval. 

I remember how I prayed beautifully for the appreciation of others, how I preached well for the attention of others, and how I gave offerings to impress others. And when I didn’t get the response I desired from people, I got disappointed. 

The Lord Jesus, in what is called The Sermon on the Mount, cautioned, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:1).

Take note, the Lord is not saying that works of righteousness are invisible, but that the motive behind our good works should not be to be seen and appreciated by people. 

I am afraid, much of the Christian activities that we do are done to be seen and praised by others. Perhaps we give an offering, do evangelism, go to church fellowship, do some good works—all so that people would look at our works of righteousness and get impressed with us. 

How many of us try hiding our folly when we sin, but when we do something good, we want to blow the trumpet and share it with others! Isn’t this what usually happens in social media, like Facebook, What’s App, etc.? We want others to see our good works, put thumbs up or a smiley, and appreciate our acts. 

Interestingly, we may even justify ourself that we share our good works to encourage others, when, in fact, our deceptive heart craves for attention and praise. And how disappointed we feel when we don’t see any appreciative symbols or words for what we have done!

Deeds done for the praise of people receive no praise from our Father in heaven. Our light must shine to glorify the name of God, not ourselves (Matt. 5:16).

Four, people-driven holiness is doing things so that others would do the same for us.

What do I expect when I post a prayer request or a pic or a testimony in social media? I want others to respond with some emojis or words of approval. But, how will they do when I myself don’t do the same for them? Social media has become more like ‘you scratch my back and I scratch your back.’ 

Some may quote the Golden Rule of the Lord Jesus, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12). Are we not just doing what the Lord Jesus said? We appreciate to receive appreciation. We help to receive help. We pray to be prayed for. We give gifts to receive gifts. We attend others’ parties so that they would attend ours, and so on.

Just like some have twisted the words of Jesus, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” to a command to love oneself, so we may twist the words of Jesus, “Do to others what you wish them to do to you” to doing all things for others in order to get them do the same for us. 

In the Golden Rule, the point of the Lord Jesus is to focus on doing for others that which we expect from them, not doing for others with an expectation to have them do the same for us. 

Think about visiting a person in a hospital and serving him. After his discharge, the person expresses his gratitude for all your kind help. Let’s say you are a transparent person, so you would respond, “O, my friend, let me be frank with you. I have done all these things to you so that when I am in trouble, you would do the same to me.” Would this excite gratitude in that person? 

Doing good for others so that others would do good for us only speaks about our selfishness, not charity.  Click Here to Read Part Three..... 

People-Driven Holiness: A Dangerous Pursuit [Part One]

Note: This article is written in three parts. It would be helpful to the readers to study this material in its entirety in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the message.

What is people-driven holiness? It is an effort to live a pious life with an ulterior motive that is obsessed with self-image. It is a life that appears holy but its focus is on maintaining a good image before people rather than cultivating a good character in the fear of God.

Honestly, there is no such thing as holiness when it is people-driven. But it does appear holy and good before people. Nevertheless, the Lord who searches the heart and tests the mind knows the wickedness behind the appearance of our piety. When He walked in flesh on earth, the Lord said to the religious people who were clothed with people-driven holiness:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Let me share five features of people-driven holiness. I have learned these lessons primarily by observing the filthiness of my own heart, which only the Spirit of God can expose.

First, people-driven holiness is led by the fear of what people think about oneself. 

The other day, I was all set to go to church fellowship, but my family wasn’t ready yet. I got frustrated because I love to be on time for church. So I yelled at my kids to leave the house immediately and hopped into the car and on the way I spoke rudely to my wife.

After some time, I thought, “What if there were guests at my home. Would I have behaved in the same manner?” No, I would have conducted myself politely, suppressing all my frustration. My guests would have thought how patient and gentle I am at home.

What do you think my motive behind my pious conduct if there were guests at my home? It is the fear of what they would think about me. [But how constant and genuine my holiness would be if I live every moment of my life knowing that God is with me and watching me, and that I do all things to please Him and glorify His Name! Sadly, this is often not the case.]

Though being wicked in my heart, how easy it is to paint the picture of piety before others in order not to let my image get debased. Don’t you think many times we are driven to behave well in order to guard our self-image before others? We often give a different impression to others than what we actually are in the inside.

This also reminds me of my commitment not to share about my personal, family, and ministry needs with others, except when I am given the freedom to do so. People think I am a man of faith, like George Mueller.

However, considering the sinfulness of my heart, I fear such a commitment essentially is not to uphold the glory of God by my faith in Him. It may be my arrogance which refuses to stretch my hands before others for help, and also not wanting my image to be marred like many Christian leaders who publicly make financial appeals. Who knows, it could also be a subtle way to let others know, “Hey, I don’t ask money from anyone. So, remember to help me without me asking you.”

It seems a lot of our good conduct is manifested, not out of our fear of God, but out of our fear of people’s impression about us. Holiness can be pursued for self-image with no focus on being conformed to the image of Christ.

Second, people-driven holiness is more focused about personal honor rather than repenting of one’s failures. 

Due to my forgetful nature and negligent attitude in house responsibilities, I commit many blunders and often make my wife upset. Sometimes, she raises her voice to express her frustration and to get my attention. 

As long as the conflict is just between my wife and me, it’s fine; but, if I realize somebody is nearby, hearing her upsetting voice over me, I get very angry. I want my wife to let others think good about me, whatever my conduct may be. I cannot tolerate if my image is tarnished before others.  

Voluntarily or involuntarily, when someone corrects me before others, like a patriotic soldier who fights for his nation, I want to immediately rise to defend my image. I want to say, "It's okay that I've failed. We all fail. But don't think bad about me. That's not what I am." 

Of course, it is good that correction must be generally given in private. However, our problem is that when we fail, we are too obsessed with our self-image before others rather than about our flawed character, confession of sin, and transformation. 

When Saul was rejected by the Lord for disobeying His commandment, Samuel sharply rebuked him. Do you know what Saul said to Samuel? “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel” (1 Sam. 15:30). 

Observe the words of Saul, “I have sinned, YET honor me before people.” Many times, do we not manifest similar sinful attitude? No matter how sinful our behavior is, we want to be honored before people and desire our image to be highly esteemed. 

Those whose holiness is people-driven, they do not walk in transparency about their weaknesses, failures, and imperfections. They do not usually take correction and ask apology with humility. Even if they do these acts, they do so with concern about their image before others. They are basically good at justifying themselves. Despite their obvious failures, they always want to impress others that they are strong and good.  Click Here to Read Part Two..... 

What are Your Idols?

John, an apostle of Christ Jesus, ends his first epistle with these words, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). Knowing that this epistle is written to God’s people, this seems to be a strange exhortation, for we associate idols usually with pagan worship. Reading the entire epistle reveals that just like the Israelis of the Old Testament who were influenced by the pagan customs and often fell into the sin of idolatry, we do not see such a problem with the believers to whom John was addressing.

So, what does it mean to "keep yourselves from idols"?

It appears that John wasn’t addressing a physical idol to which pagans pay homage. It seems to be a figurative language, using the term “idol” to make a significant point. An idol is anything that takes God’s place, robbing the attention, passion and devotion which belong primarily to God alone. Although believers may detest worshiping pagan idols, it is quite possible for us to erect earthly things in our heart, substituting God’s place, which could become no less than an idol.

Dethroning God
If we devote our attention and passion to anything more than God, it becomes an idol, making us idolaters. An idol is anything that dethrones God and enthrones itself in God’s place.

What could be the possible idols in our lives?

An idol could be entertaining things like movies, television, music, mobile phones, iPods, iPad, video games…etc. An idol could be recreational activities like sports, hobbies, parties or travel…etc. An idol could be social networks like Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, E-mail…etc.

An idol could be food and beverages. An idol could be education and job. An idol could be sex and other pleasures. An idol could be power and success. An idol could be preoccupation with personal reputation (what people think of me???). An idol could be money and possessions. An idol could also be people like family, friends, girl/boyfriend, and celebrities (secular or spiritual). It may seem strange, but even church and ministry could become idols.

How many of us have idols as mentioned from the list above (one, few or many)? How many of us often think about these things more than God’s glory and goodness? How many us are more passionate for them, giving less attention to prayer and meditation of God’s word? How many of us are deeply attached to these things and lack passion for God’s kingdom and His righteousness? How many of us are pursing such things and lack hunger and thirst for God and His intimacy? How many of us admire the created things more than worshiping the Creator of the heavens and the earth? How many of us have placed them on the throne of our heart, pushing God to the footstool?

Turning Blessings into Idols
Remember, an idol may not necessarily be evil in itself; it may be a good thing to which we may devote our hearts more than God Himself. It is easy for us to become addicted to good things and remain blinded to sin by justifying ourselves, “What’s wrong with this or that?” Let us take heed to these words of Susannah Wesley, which she wrote in a letter to her son, John Wesley, describing about what sin is:

Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.

We need to understand that sin is not just stealing, committing murder and adultery; it is also giving God the secondary place in our lives by indulging ourselves in the good things of the world. We may love Jesus and yet sin against Him when we love Him less than other things (Matt. 10:37). We may thank God for what He gives and yet idolize those blessings.

If we examine our heart, what does our thoughts, dreams and passions speak about? Are they set upon God or upon the world?

We may be active in some of the spiritual activities, but if the Giver of life has not been given the central place in our lives, we are still idolaters and no better than pagans.

So, here is the fact—one of our greatest battles in Christian life is to fight against anything (be it inherently good or evil) that tries to penetrate our hearts to take priority over God’s place. And this is what holiness is—separating ourselves from everything and consecrating ourselves in everything to live for God's glory.  

Enthroning God
Dear believers of Christ Jesus, God gave us every blessing on earth so that we would enjoy them with gratefulness towards Him. He gave us everything as a means to manifest His love and mercy so that in turn we would be devoted to Him in our daily life. However, we sinful people often turn those means into objects, blessings into idols, and treat God as a means to possess them.

Don't we often ignore God and give ourselves to be enslaved by those things which God has given us for His glory and for our welfare?

Therefore, shall we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of idols within us? Shall we repent of any idols which we have erected in our hearts? Shall we turn from those good things of which we have become slaves and return to the good Lord who loved us and gave His life for us? Shall we give the Living God the utmost place He deserves in our lives? Shall we make a commitment, “I will not allow anything to divert my attention, passion and devotion from the Lord in whom there is fullness of joy, peace and satisfaction?”

When the world makes much noise, enticing us to itself, let these words of apostle John ring constantly in our ears, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

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Enquiries:

cstephendavid@gmail.com (or) stephen@tents-india.org