Several weeks ago, I heard a sermon
on the seventh chapter of Daniel. In case you have not read the seventh chapter
of Daniel recently, here is a small sample:
“Daniel said: ‘In my vision at night
I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the
great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of
the sea….The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle…. And
there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear….After that, I
looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard.
And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird….After that, in my
vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and
frightening and very powerful…. It was different from all the former beasts,
and it had ten horns…. While I was thinking about the horns, there before me
was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the
first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a
human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.”
After reading the passage, I was
excited to hear the sermon, because I did not know what in the world the four beasts
were or what they represented. I had a vague idea that they were supposed to be
four historical kingdoms which rose up after the time of Daniel, but my
knowledge beyond this was limited.
But the sermon was, quite frankly,
confusing. The first five minutes or so were spent briefly explaining the
historical context and what kingdoms the four beasts represented—and then,
suddenly, the pastor shifted focus. By the end of the first ten minutes, the
sermon was no longer about Daniel and his vision. It was about me.
I was asked to identify which of the
four “beasts” I was, or in other words, what sins needed to be combatted in my
life. After that train of thought ended, the sermon changed track and began
talking about persecution around the world and how I should get informed about
the plight of the saints everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong—all of these are
great topics. I am all for conviction of sin and involvement in global
evangelism. But this somewhat disjointed sermon highlighted what I consider a problem
in modern Christianity—the advent of Christian narcissism.
Christian narcissism is my own term
for the tendency of Christians to make every Biblical passage about themselves.
The Christian narcissist rejects the idea that perhaps, some books of the Bible
were not written directly to and about his own life. The Christian narcissist
is bored by any Bible verse that does not have an immediate application to his
or her current experience. The Christian narcissist must leave every Sunday
morning with a precise goal for the week garnered from the sermon.
The Christian narcissist believes
that his holiness is the end all of Christianity. This is a flawed view of
Christianity for several reasons, the most important of which is this:
Christianity
does not exist to make you a better person. In other words, Christianity is
not like a medicine. Its purpose is not to fix the holes in your heart or even
the sins in your life. The shocking truth is that Christianity is not primarily
the means by which you become holy. Christianity should indeed produce
holiness, but this is only a byproduct.
Christianity is the story of Jesus
Christ and how He continues to save His people. You are precious because you
are loved by God, not because you love God. In other words, the beauty of the
Gospel is entirely contained in the person of the Triune God of the Bible. He
is the focus. The story is about Him, not about you and me.
We become Christian narcissists when
we start to believe that the Bible is about us.
The moment we begin to assume that we are the main characters of the greatest
Book of all time, we begin to seek immediate practical application of every passage
to our own lives.
In the first chapter of Luke, Mary
speaks the Magnificat, a prayer of praise to God which is one of the most
beautiful passages in all of Scripture. The Magnificat begins:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for
he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For
behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for
he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and
holy is his name.”
Glorious.
Sublime. Beautiful. And absolutely not focused on Mary.
The
Magnificat points to the goodness of the Almighty. It fixes all attention on
Him, and in the light of His glory, all else fades away.
This is not to say, of course, that there are
no passages of the Bible that have direct application to the individual. But
even these passages must be read with the understanding that holiness is a gift
from God to the Christian, begun and concluded by His strength and not by ours.
When
we understand that the Bible is not about us, we become free to preach about
something other than ourselves. When we encounter a passage like Daniel 7, we
do not have to contrive a shaky practical message. Instead, we can examine the
historical meaning of the four beasts and marvel at the wisdom of the God who reveals
all mysteries. And in the end, when you read Daniel (and everything else in the
Bible) as a story about Someone greater than you are, you will see that knowledge
shine through your life.
Christian
narcissism ultimately operates on fear. It operates under the assumption that
if we do not work on ourselves, we will come up short. But the message of the
Bible is not one of fear. It is one of freedom. Galatians 5:1 says, “For
freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery.” In other words, now that you have been given the light
of Christ, do not turn once again to the fear of the law. You are free to read
Scripture and exult in the glory and goodness of God, rather than memorize a
list of rules to follow. This is a scandalous message indeed!
This
freedom means that pastors need not fear that if they neglect to give their
congregations ten steps to righteousness every single Sunday morning, they will
suddenly have a compulsively sinful congregation on their hands. They should
instead be honest about the passages which they preach. If a passage is exhortative,
let them exhort. If a passage is instructive, let them instruct. But if a
passage is historical (like Daniel 7), then for Heaven’s sake, let them preach
about history!
Every
Biblical passage has meaning. Every Biblical passage is important to your life.
But occasionally, that meaning and importance lies in the depth of the context of the text itself. The Bible is always
written for you—for your benefit. But
it is not always written about you or directly to you.
Scripture
is deeper and richer in meaning and life than you can ever imagine. Do not try
to wrestle it awkwardly into your current life situation. Instead, read it
honestly for what it is—a story about your Lord and Savior.
The
greatest story of all.
And
one that is ultimately not about you.
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