The Luring Temptation of Self Glory
The Pharisees were infatuated with their own glory. They wanted to parade their power, position, and spirituality in front of others. Jesus warned about becoming like the Pharisees.
“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.” Matthew 6:1 ESV
For example, Jesus taught that if you do something generous, keep it to yourself. Don’t parade it in front of others. Self-glory is a constant temptation. As pastors, it is SO easy to become like the Pharisees. It is so easy to shape our ministries on self-glory. It’s easy to find ways to look “big” in front of others.
If we receive glory via a compliment, a praise, a thank you, a congratulatory email or text, we can easily find a way to “share” it in front of others. For example, we had a thumb tack board in our workroom at our church where we would post thank you cards from church members that were written to the entire staff, like after a funeral. There was one staff member who would post personal thank you notes to himself for all to see.
We need to be self aware and see these red flags in our lives, because unfortunately there is a lot of self-righteous parading that happens in ministry work. We need to be vigilant about recognizing this in our own lives and aggressively eliminating it. At its core, it’s pride. The Bible warns that God opposes the proud.
“And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6 NLT
There is absolutely no room for self-glory. As John said, “Jesus must increase and I must decrease.” Isn’t it hard to decrease? It’s against our human nature. It takes a close, daily walk with Jesus for sure. What does that look like?
For pastors, I think it can start with our sermons. While there is nothing “wrong” about sharing a victory in your life as a sermon illustration, too much of this is unhealthy, both for you and for your church. It’s too easy to seek self-glory and always want to be the hero of every story. It can end up causing people to look up to you, but in a very unhealthy way. It can build your ego and make it easier for the pastor to manipulate people, which is not a good thing. Self-glory is intrinsically evil and wicked! It’s the M.O. of Satan.
I found that stories about myself that were NOT flattering were much more effective with my church. When was the last time you really told on yourself? I’m not talking about something from twenty years ago that you did or struggled with, but now you have the victory. I mean you got raw and real about a current struggle, sin, or a failure?
There is too much lack of realness in church, but it starts with the pastor on the platform. Our legalistic side tells us we can’t do this. We have to keep the rules better and be more spiritual than everybody else in the church. I mean, after all, “I’m the pastor! I can’t show any weakness.” This is a lie that we tell ourselves. It simply is not true. It will actually produce incredible bondage in your life.
The truth is, you are a fallen, sinful, imperfect person like everybody else in your church. You probably have teaching and leadership gifts, and therefore you get to speak publicly and be in front of crowds more than others, but that doesn’t mean you are any better than anybody else in the church. And the church needs to be reminded of this often. Let them see your humanity!
- It keeps the church from putting you on a pedestal.
- It makes you much more approachable.
- It helps create an atmosphere of transparency and openness.
The Church of Rhythm was a band in the 90’s that produced a song entitled, “Not Perfect”, and it was a call to put away the façade and be real. Here are the words to the chorus and a link to the song at the end of this blog:
“I’m not perfect, not put together,
Sometimes I’m lonely, but it’s only real life.
Here I stand, cast your stones, if you mock me,
Know that it’s only that you’re scared of real life.”
As pastors, I want to challenge us to be real, and never use the platform God has given us for self-glory. Jesus must increase, I must decrease! We don’t want people leaving our churches and saying, “What a great man or what a mighty preacher.” We want them to leave and say, “Wow! He preaches a great and mighty Savior.”
“Not Perfect” – Church of Rhythm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt6m5cYM35U