Modern day abortion is the moral equivalent of the biblical sacrifices of children made to the various gods. We are drifting deeper and deeper into serving the god of “self” more and more while serving the one and true God less and less. No, I am not going to focus on abortion in this blog. I am, instead, going to focus on the god of “self”. This is the driving force behind most of the issues we deal with today.
Let’s name a few. Pro-choice is a term used to define the fact that a woman has every right to choose whether or not she should allow a baby to live inside of her body. After all, she is deciding what to do with her-“self”. She is self determining. Transgender is the term used to define those who choose to change their gender because they do not like the one they say was “assigned” to them at birth. After all, they’re deciding what to do with their-“self”. Homosexual is a term used to define those who choose to have intimate relationships with people of their own sex. After all, they’re deciding what’s best for their own “self”. Atheism is the term used to define those who choose not to recognize the existence of the one and true God. After all, they’re deciding what serves their-“self” best.
The list goes on and on and is truly endless. In our world today, we are deeply consumed by the god of “self”. What I want or desire is more important than what’s right for everyone else around me as well as those coming behind me. We drag our “self” worship into places of worship and impose our preferences on those we congregate with. It is no wonder churches are forced to bend so low to the point of being at the edge of compromise because they’re working hard to serve the god of “self” living and thriving in their members.
The ultimate problem with the god of “self” is that we can never do enough to satisfy its desires. It is driven by the flesh and the flesh is constantly lusting after what it desires and not what’s good for the Spirit of God that lives within us. The god of “self” wants what’s best for our flesh and not what builds up our relationship with Christ. As Paul writes in Galatians 5, the Spirit is in a constant battle against our flesh.
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” – (Galatians 5:16-17, NIV)
I am a firm believer that if all people, all over the world, were to work hard to crucify the flesh and all its desires, we could eradicate almost all of the world’s problems. I wish that it would just begin with Christians. We make up over a third of the world’s population. If we were to follow scripture and obey the two most important commandments, love God and love others as yourself, things would be glorious! It is no wonder that Jesus stated simply that the second greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself. Paul repeats the same statement in his letter to the Galatians as well as in his instructions on marriage in Ephesians 5.
God knows how capable we are of loving ourselves. It does not take much prodding, encouragement, or admonition to get someone to love their own “self”. It is the love for others that takes ALL that and then some. When the love for “self” is minimized and the love for others is maximized then aborting a baby would be an abomination, killings, slander, theft, lying, and all manners of “self” descriptive identifications would become abominations as well. This would happen simply because we would consider how our actions affect those around us and how to minimize the negative effects while maximizing the positive.
The god of “self” threatens to ruin our relationship with the one true God. We must work to re-establish the worship of the great God of heaven who compels us to lay down our lives and the desires of the god of “self” so that we can take up our cross and follow Him. The god of “self” cannot do these things. He must be crucified so that the one true God might live fully in and through us.
“If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” – (Romans 8:13, NIV)
Nelson Masinde 