This is a topic that I have discovered can severely hinder someone’s faith. This topic isn't exactly selfish, but I define this as simply as possible: “What do you want people to think about you?” And with that question, many Christians pursue that answer instead of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to address this issue with Scripture, and I don't want to make radical, prideful judgments on people who struggle with this. My purpose is that God will open your eyes to those areas where you want to boast about yourself instead of glorify Him, the Giver of life!
Luke 20:46-47 says, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
The Pharisees loved the praise of man and built their lives around such praise. As the Scripture states, they dressed in long robes, meaning very fashionably compared to others in that culture, to silently profess how great they were. The Pharisees loved the greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogue and the places of honor. They loved such things because they truly believed they were worthy of such honor. They believed such man-given honor sustained them.
When Luke states that they “devoured widow’s houses,” there are two possible explanations. The first is that widows were considered poor, so devouring widows’ houses could possibly mean that the Pharisees would make the poor poorer while they became richer, as they were lovers of money. The second is that widows were also in a state of need since their husbands had passed. Pharisees would not bother helping the widow, because doing so would make them look less honorable to the world, which would ruin their reputation. No matter which explanation we choose, both are a problem. They also made long prayers for a pretense, which basically means they prayed longer than usual because they wanted to show the world how knowledgeable they were in the Mosaic Law. The Pharisees wanted the world to view them as men of righteousness, even though they were the opposite, and as the last sentence in the verse reads, “They will receive the greater condemnation”.
The reason why Jesus warns His people about the Pharisees is because they did everything to glorify themselves. They wanted all honor and glory for themselves, which would bolster their self-image. This was sinful in God’s eyes, because they robbed God of His glory. The Pharisees wanted the world to know that they were good, moral religious leaders, but they didn’t care at all for their Creator.
When I first came across this passage, I was blown away, I looked more into the passage, and then I thought, "How can we Christians be like the Pharisees?" We can easily get wrapped up in all this knowledge of God, studying different doctrines while completely forgetting to worship in the process. When this happens, we can become very prideful and self-righteous. We start to think that we're the wisest Christians in the world and no one is as smart as us. We start studying the Word of God, not to worship Him and grow in our faith, but to show other Christians how great and knowledgeable we think we are.
This can also be done through social media sites. We take multiple pictures throughout the day, posting them to websites with the intent of showing the world how perfect our life is. We begin to build up a second life: We have our regular life and our Facebook life. We can easily make our Facebook life our dream life, and all the positive posts and cool pictures with friends can easily become what we want people to see us as. People use Facebook as a cover for their broken lives, filled with pain and regret, but we would do whatever it takes so that others don’t have to see who we really are. We hide under such things because we're afraid of rejection. We don’t want people to see our true selves, so we build up a wall of lies to hide under. Please, my brothers and sisters, don’t fall into this trap. In Genesis 2, God created Eve because He stated that man shall not be alone. Let's begin to use words to have conversations with people instead of a keyboard. Be who God created you to be, not someone you want people to view you as.
I committed such a sin after my first year of Bible college, I was taking all these awesome courses in the Bible, learning all this theology. Doctrine after doctrine I studied, but I lacked worshipping God for revealing new truths to me through my studies. I thought I earned it on my own, and didn't recognize it was God giving me the knowledge. It lead to big arguments in many relationships with others until God showed me how wrong I actually was. This is a constant battle I see every day, but if it weren't for God using His servants to reveal to me my fault, I couldn't even imagine what relationships I may have wrecked, God is truly amazing at raising His children.
If you're also struggling in this area. I want to share a wonderful promise made by God 600 years before the birth of Christ. Jeremiah 32:39-41 reads, “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.”
This is a beautiful promise from God, and throughout history we surely do know that God keeps His promises. God will continue to do us good, He will continue to sustain you everywhere you go and He will never turn away from you. Don't buy into the lie of the world about portraying a “self-image,” but let the world know that you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will continue to stretch His arms out to you. When you sin, God will still seek you and pull you out. Grab His arm and trust in the Lord. Don’t let the word of man sustain you, but let the everlasting sufficiency of God define who you truly are!
