Today's Scripture Reading (May 27, 2021): 2 & 3 John
In "Pride and Prejudice,"
Jane Austin writes about the difference between pride and vanity. "Vanity and pride are different things, though the words
are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride
relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others
think of us." Given this definition, pride might be helpful under certain
circumstances, but vanity is always problematic.
I
would love to argue that vanity is not a problem for the Christian Church, but
that would not be the truth. The church is made up of humans, and so,
invariability, we all worry a little about what people think of us, our vanity.
And for some, it is more than a little. The church exists as a political
structure, with people working hard to get into what they believe are positions
of power. They try to climb the hierarchical ladder and campaign to be elected
to the right denominational boards.
Several
years ago, I attended an interdenominational prayer meeting. It started as a prayer
time over a specific issue but quickly devolved into a prophecy session. A group
of men, they were all men, went around the room picking out particular people,
who they then prayed over, and the prayer was followed by a prophecy of what
the future held. As this process got underway, I looked around the room and
discovered that my boss had left the meeting. And if the boss was gone, I figured
that this might be a good time for me to make my escape. I was just about to
leave when the group spotted me and decided to make me their next victim. Maybe
it was supposed to be an honor, but it didn't feel that way at the time. And I
have always been more comfortable working behind the scenes, much to the frustration
of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
The
men descended on me, placed hands on me, prayed for me, and then prophesied
flowery things about my future. Then they moved on, like a plague of locusts to
another fertile spot in the room. And with everyone's attention distracted, I
left the meeting.
I
remember walking down an empty hallway outside of the meeting hall as one group
member disengaged from their current victim to chase after me. He had a
question he needed me to answer. "Did we get it right when we prophesied
over you?" I was confused. If God had given you the message, then it was
right. Why do you need me to confirm what God has told you? But the truth was
that vanity was at work. It wasn't the prophecy that was important, but that I thought
well of this person and the rest of his little group. He needed to be first.
John's
letter is essentially a comparison of two men. An excellent example of the
faith is encapsulated by Gaius, who Paul loves in truth (3 John 1). But the bad
example is seen in Diotrephes, who loves to be first (3 John 9). Diotrephes was
vain, and because of his vanity, he refused to welcome Paul into his fellowship.
He would not allow anyone whose light might shine brighter than his own to come
into his presence. How he was received was more important than the gospel, and
that was a problem.
The
story of Diotrephes is a cautionary tale that we need to hear because people do
not respond well to our vanity. Instead, they need to know how much we love God
and each other and that whatever it takes to further the gospel is what we need
to do. I am second, and I need to remember that and not love "being first."
Maybe
that is precisely what Wesley meant in his Covenant Prayer, written in 1780. He
begins with the assertion that "I am
no longer my own, but thine" but then moves on to say, "Let me be
employed by thee or laid aside for thee." God, let there be no vanity in me, no need to be thought
well of by other people or be first. Just let me do as you need me to do, even if
what you need of me is to sit on the sideline and be a cheerleader for others.
We
need that to be a description of us, and not that we were a Diotrephes who
needed to be first.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Revelation 1
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