The Most Dangerous Temptation for Politicians, Celebrities, Good Looking People, Jocks, Pastors, and Bosses

The Most Dangerous Temptation

We all suffer many forms of temptations, but I think one is especially tempting.

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7)

We have a tendency to believe that the good differences we have compared to other people are our achievement. Think about it. If you're shorter than someone else, you blame God. If you're taller than someone else, you think you're awesome. We all struggle with some form of this type of puffing up of ourselves because we do not believe that what we have is a gift from God apart  from any merit.

Know the Law

This temptation is especially true for those who have power. And who has more power than a sovereign king of a country? If the highest law of the United States of America is the Constitution. The highest law of ancient Israel was Deuteronomy. And through Israel's "Constitution", God made a provision, or process, for how Israel could institute its own king.

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

The process of instituting a new king was created to ensure that the new king was righteous and would fear God. The king had to copy all of Deuteronomy, by hand. The hope was that knowledge of the law would humble the king.

You see, anyone who has power, has the tendency to be corrupted  by the power and assume that he is above others who do not have power. That is why politicians, celebrities, good looking people, jocks, pastors, and  bosses have a tendency to abuse power because we assume that the power given to us is our own and not ultimately from God.

Live Below Your Means

I've always been taught, as a good fiscal conservative, to be a good financial steward by living within your means. But I think the biblical principle goes beyond living within your means to living below your means for the purpose of humility so that we are not puffed up against others.

Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, "You shall never return that way again." And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:16-17)

You can substitute horses for cars, mansions, and iPads. They mean any type of material object that can be used to turn our hearts away from God.

Before you laugh and think that having many wives does not apply to us modern folks -- just think of Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Anthony Wiener, Rush Limbaugh, Tedd Haggard, and Larry Ellison. The more power we have, the more likely we are to stumble.

The means of fighting that temptation is by living below our means. The "Chan" referenced in the following paragraph is Francis Chan, not me.

The answer to that question brought about change in Chan's life, both personally and professionally. Personally, Chan and his then family of four moved out of their 2000-square-foot house to a 1000-square-foot house. "It was just me, but I couldn’t reconcile how I could live in such a nice house while others were starving," Chan recalls. Since then, the Chan family has added to their number. As Lisa's parents arrived at retirement, the Chans felt it was appropriate to provide a place for them. So they bought a 1200-square-foot house with a bit more property to build an addition. They’ve welcomed two more children into their family and taken in a few more people. "In total, we’ll have 10 of us in the house which will ironically be about 2000 square feet."

Should we judge someone by the size of their house? May be, may be not. RC Sproul lives in a huge mansion. Is it just smear? May be, may be not.

Jonathan Edwards was kicked out of his own church over issues related to money. The general judgement of the Church, 300 years later, is that he was wrongly accused.

I bring the lives of Francis Chan, RC Sproul, and Jonathan Edwards to show that there is much range in how to apply these verses. Yet, nonetheless, we must not let this range be an excuse for us to not meditate on how God wants us to apply these verses. They were written for a reason. We must apply them. They were written to give us boundaries in living so that we would fear God and not puff up ourselves against other people.