Making much of Jesus

I think it has always been human nature to be into focusing on yourself and your own achievements. What has changed over the last decade or so is the increasing ease with which we have become able to broadcast our self obsession to the world. Whether it be the reality TV show contestant gushing about how they “just want to show the country what I’ve got” with such an intensity you’d think they were the missing piece of the country’s cultural identity or the internet user filling their facebook or twitter feeds with the minutest details of their activities, achievements and preferences, our culture gives us plenty of opportunity for self absorption. Maybe as Christians this is not the way things are meant to work for us. Have a look at what Paul has to say….

“ If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:4b-8 NIV)

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14 NIV)

If anyone had reason to be a bit full of himself, it was Paul. He came from a prestigious background, was well educated and had been successful at what he did both before and after being saved. And yet, Paul isn’t bragging because is not himself he wants to lift up. He understood so deeply the glory and worthiness of Jesus that it put anything he may have done in its rightful perspective. He realized that Jesus was the one worth telling the world about, not himself.
It is not necessarily wrong to tweet, facebook , go on a reality show or many of the other outlets of expression our society gives us but as Christians we have to watch who we are glorifying with what we do. May we be a people who make much of Jesus, not ourselves.


for more on this, listen to this week's song of the week "much of you"