Tuesday, September 22, 2020

The Root of All Evil....

Have you ever given much thought to the cause of conflict in this world? I mean every evil act committed from bank robberies to rape, from war and plunder to slander to slaying, all stems from one root cause. Have you guessed it yet? Selfishness. Pride is when preserving your dignity overrides abiding in truth. Take for example: you’re with friends, one of them makes a jovial comment about you. You have several options. One, you can laugh it off and pretend it didn’t hurt you. Two, you can ignore it. Or three, you can take offense to it, and plot some type of revenge or comeback to put the commenter in their place. Pride plays a huge role in determining which option you choose. When confronted by the truth, pride opposes acknowledgement of it. Pride wants to save face. That usually involves directing attention to someone else, usually the person making the misinterpreted comment. Pride does not allow wisdom to enter the mind of the prideful one, and thus eventually leading to conflict. And this conflict usually has no good outcome. People are hurt, and sometimes scarred for life due to this selfish act of “saving face”. Here in Esther chapter 3 and 4, we read of how Haman’s selfishness and pride cause him to plot a plan of annihilating the entire Jewish race, all because one man’s (Mordecai) refusal to bow down to him and show him respect. Haman’s pride drove him so far as to not just kill Mordecai and end this public scrutiny, but to eradicate his entire race. When asked “what is the opposite of love”, the student answered “hate”. The teacher replied, “that’s incorrect, the opposite of love is selfishness”. I would agree. That selfishness (we all have) is the root of all evil. No wonder God promotes humility and opposes pride. It goes against His character. He wants us to love, because love is the only remedy to selfishness and pride. Doesn’t it say in the Bible that Love covers a multitude of sins. Make sense? The next time conflict arises, carefully examine your motives, I bet you’ll find selfishness and pride creeping in your back door. Then take the appropriate action and make right what you know you’ve done wrong. Don’t be a Haman.

5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. 6 He had learned of Mordecai’s nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes. Esther 3:5-6

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