We live in a society where money is everything, and where lots of people have lots of money. Yet, the “popular” diseases of the day are stress-related: depression, burnout, mid-life crisis, alcoholism, suicide and drug dependency. We are rich, and yet empty! Or shall we say, we are rich, yet broke!! Franz Kafka, novelist and short-story writer of the early 1900’s, once said: “The Fathers of the Church were not afraid to go out into the desert because they had a richness in their hearts. But we, with riches all around us, are afraid because the desert is in our hearts.”
What we just described is the result of people
preoccupied with the “sins of selfish ambition.” In Matt. 16:25-26 Jesus used two phrases to
describe this lifestyle: whoever desires to save his life and gains
the whole world. We see that selfish
ambition is not just a focus of Americans or the West or the world of
2021. It has been with us, actually,
since the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve thought they could achieve God-like
stature by going against God’s command.
What are the “sins of selfish ambition?”
·
Selfish ambition means to be self-seeking
or selfish. It speaks of rivalry, the
desire to get ahead though it may cost something we have no ability to pay.
·
Dissensions comes from a root word
meaning “to stand apart.” It is
opposition to others based on my desire to be number one.
·
Heresies is quite an interesting term. The Greek word is “haireseis” which gives us
our word. The root idea is “to choose,
or to express your preferences.” There
is little question, in Church History, that the development of heresies has
resulted from selfish ambition, resulting in a sectarian spirit. Someone chooses a false view of Scripture,
and then refuses to submit to Biblical reproof.
There is an illustration of this in 3 John 1:9-10. The man’s name was Diotrephes, and he loved
to have the preeminence among the believers.
Thus, he would not receive the Apostle John or those he sent to minister
to the church. John charged him with prating
against us with malicious words.
·
Envy is the motive behind all this. Envy wants to deprive others of what they
have. Note the fine line between envy (wanting
to deprive others) and jealousy (wanting to have what others have).
As with the “sins of
hatred,” so here, I believe there is a pattern …
envy
>>> selfish ambition >>> dissensions and heresies.
The health issues we mentioned at the outset of
this post make sense biblically. Solomon
said, envy is rottenness to the bones (Prov. 14:30). Is there hope for this evil that pervades
humanity? Is there hope for me? Yes!
In Christ alone.
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