Copyright 2017 by Shea Oakley<\/p>\n
All rights reserved<\/p>\n
Sometimes \u201cthe World, the Flesh, and the Devil\u201d are not trying to get us to do something obviously and openly wrong. Instead they are more quietly tempting us to try to work our way to Heaven in a way that apes the true holiness of life that comes only through the progressive application of God\u2019s transforming grace.<\/p>\n
Legalistic and self-centered attempts to earn favor with God, whether conscious or unconscious, are nothing new in the history of Christianity. Despite our Lord\u2019s severe warnings to the Pharisees about thinking their external works would make them acceptable to His Father we still have plenty of modern day Pharisees in the Church and, if we are honest, we often also are aware of at least traces of that error made manifest in ourselves.<\/p>\n
Why are these tendencies towards \u201cwork-righteousness\u201d (an oxymoron if there ever was one) so difficult to eradicate within our hearts? There is more than one answer to this question and I will not presume to address them all here. Instead I would like to shine a light on one reason why we continue to mistake false holiness with the actual article.<\/p>\n
A primary reason is found in the subtlety of the forces mentioned earlier. The \u201cWorld\u201d constantly tells us that we cannot get something for nothing. We are led to believe that we have to work for anything and everything we want to possess, even love itself. The \u201cFlesh\u201d, meanwhile, appeals to our internal sense of pride, the idea that we really can attain to whatever we want based on our own completely intrinsic merits. Then there is the Enemy of our souls, the \u201cDevil\u201d, an active and actual being who embodies evil in its \u201cpurest\u201d form. He does his best to deceive us into thinking that both what we learn from the World and what we learn from the Flesh is the truth.<\/p>\n
All three of these influences also encourage us to commit those obvious and open sins this piece began by mentioning but such transgressions, because they are obvious and open, are much easier for us to identify, and from which repent. It is not so easy to identify the spiritual pride lurking within us and encouraged from outside ourselves. It\u2019s that pride which ultimately motivates our inauthentic efforts to be \u201cgood\u201d, to grow in the appearance of true holiness. In fact there is perhaps no other threat to our spiritual life both as profound in its negative effects and as elusive in its identification as prideful effort masquerading as God\u2019s sanctifying work in us.<\/p>\n
This begs the question of how to recognize and turn from trying to work our way to Heaven. Blessedly, there are several ways to tackle this problem. Probably the most effective approach is to ask God, by His Spirit, to both show us when and where we are practicing works-righteousness and then to direct us away from our own efforts and into surrender to His grace. We can also pray for protection against the effectiveness of those three influences: the World, Flesh, and the Devil. Another resource is our brothers and sisters in the Faith, who can pray towards that end for us. Finally some fellow Christians even have the gift of identifying legalistic effort in others. Often pastors and Christian counselors are particularly discerning in this area.<\/p>\n
The problem might be a difficult one to both know and resolve but, as with all the things which threaten our progress in being conformed to the image of Christ, God Himself gives us strength even in our weakness to overcome. In fact it is in recognizing our weakness and accepting it that His grace can be brought to bear on this challenge to an authentically Christian life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2017 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Sometimes \u201cthe World, the Flesh, and the Devil\u201d are not trying to get us to do something obviously and openly wrong. Instead they are more quietly tempting us to try to work our way to Heaven in a way that apes the true holiness of life that… <\/p>\n