“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
Just like the word of proverbs, people betray God when they became arrogant. The arrogance comes from forgetting gratefulness for God and is rudeness toward Him. People become humble by remembering God’s grace and being grateful for Him while they become pride by forgetting His grace and goodness to themselves. Pride persons logically insist on their opinion and find the cause of mistakes in other people thinking that they are always doing well.
When people become greedy, they betray God. James 1:15 says, “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” No matter what happens, we should be away from greediness and not betray God.
The flesh desire also leads people to betray God. The Holy Spirit inspired Ananias and Sapphire to sell their property so that they may use it to preach the gospel. But they died immediately because they kept back some part of the money for themselves and lied to the disciples (Acts 5:1-11). Likewise, when we betray God by putting our fleshly desire first, we will be punished by Him.
Matthew 16:21 says, “Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then, Peter held Jesus and earnestly said, “Never, Lord!” “This shall never happen to you!”.
Jesus said to Peter “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Matthew 16:23). Likewise, disregarding God’s work but following the bodily desire is a terrible act of betrayal.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #783
