The Disease of Self

There is a disease running rampant in our culture today, affecting marriages and families, inflicting pain and destruction.  It is the disease of self.  Self-centeredness.  Self-seeking.  Self-serving.  Self-esteem.

“I have to be ________ (comfortable, happy, fulfilled).”

“I need to find myself.”

“I owe it to myself.”

“It’s all about self-esteem.”

Consumerism–we are getting very comfortable giving ourselves everything materially that we want or feel would satisfy us.  Relationally–many marriages are crumbling not because of abuse or rampant infidelity (although there are certainly those as well), but because one spouse doesn’t make the other spouse happy enough, and isn’t it all about OUR happiness?  The “Oprah-ized” nation–we follow Oprah’s every suggestion when she has show after show about how to find your true self,  how to live your best life, and “know yourself,” without any mention of the one true God or Jesus Christ.  Billboards, television, and print media appeals to our love of self. . .sending messages about how you deserve the flashy car, the bigger house, even the mistress or the alcoholic beverage.  The psychology-driven culture has taught us that at the core of everyone is a basically good person that has been influenced by the bad world, the bad parents, the bad events in life, and that we need to throw all of that off of us in order to really find ourselves and be happy.

It’s all about us.

Or is it?

I was reading Hard to Believe by John MacArthur last night and came across this quote:  “The true gospel is a call to self-denial.  It is not a call to self-fulfillment.”  That is not what is preached in our society today.  And sadly, it is not what is preached on enough lips of professing Christians either.

As Christians, we know (intellectually) the truth of Luke 9:23-26, which says, “Then he (Jesus) said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.’”  But do we know it in our hearts and minds–the same hearts and minds that drive us to act in much the same way as the world (who doesn’t know this truth) acts?  This Scripture is very contrary to the world’s beliefs, but that doesn’t surprise me.  In the end times, there is going to be an even greater distinction between the things of God and the things of the world, and the “road that leads to life” will appear so very narrow to us who are entrenched in the world.  How many will miss the road altogether?

“Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:12-14).