Three Dangers

by E. W. Rogers (England)

Jude 11

Jude’s epistle specially relates to intruders among God’s people who seek to subvert the faith. Nevertheless, as all the rest of Scripture, it has a warning voice for those who desire to walk according to truth. This is notably so in the case of the above verse.

Cain was marked by self-will, Balaam by self-interest, and Korah by self-importance. The common factor in all was SELF. How unlike the Lord Jesus! He was the way, the truth and the life, the very antitheses of Cain’s way, Balaam’s error, and Korah’s perishing.

Self-will

Not heeding the lesson of his parents’ useless figleaf aprons, Cain offered of the fruits of the ground. Only the death of a substitute could provide a covering for the guilty, but he would not take that way of regaining an acceptable standing before God. So opposed was he to it that he slew his brother Abel. Cain insisted on having his own way. That is why it is called “the way of Cain,” v11.

The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, said even before He came here, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” When confronting the Cross He said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” His “meat and drink were to do the Will of Him that sent Him.” It was ever true of Him that He “sought not of His own will but the Father’s Will.” There was no self-will with Him. He “always did the things that pleased” the Father.

Nor should self-will be with us. We should “… live the rest of our time in the flesh … to the will of God.” Among other things, self-will refuses to acknowledge, practically, that the believer has died with Christ. Like Abraham, who clung to Ishmael, we seek to keep self alive. It is pleasant to the flesh and so easy to find a plausible excuse for allowing it. Yet the plain fact is that “Christ died for us that we should no longer live to ourselves.” Never forget that self-will works insidiously, and often wears a deceptive and pious cloak. It is easy to be deceived by it.

Self-interest

The histories and prophecies of Balaam are deeply instructive: the name Balaam is of ill-fame in both Testaments. Against his own will he became God’s mouthpiece, but his motives were evil. The king of Moab offered him gifts and honours and, in order to obtain them, he persisted in a course rebuked by the dumb ass. He intended to curse God’s people: that he did not do so is no credit to him. If he could not do this he corrupted them at Baal Peor, and this pleased Balak and achieved his desired end.

Balaam is of the same sort as Micah’s fee-bargaining priest, and Elisha’s greedy servant Gehazi. He is akin to Simon the sorcerer. Their gains are called in holy writ “filthy lucre.” The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, religious evil not excluded.

Christendom is riddled with this form of self-interest, notwithstanding the example of the Lord Jesus who though rich became poor. “Even Christ pleased not Himself.” Besides which, His servant Paul “coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel,” but rather than give occasion to any to have the slightest ground for supposing otherwise “he laboured with his own hands,” whilst he evangelized.

This danger is with us all. Self is so dear that we utterly dislike the thought of anything that might not contribute to its comfort and ease. What strange thoughts Balaam must have had of Moses who had renounced Egypt’s pleasures to lead such a people through such a wilderness! Men like Nehemiah who are willing to leave a good post in a palace and throw in their lot with a distressed people in a ruined city are rare today.

Self-importance

The root of Korah’s rebellion was just this: he could not bear another standing in greater prominence than he. He felt his claims to be as good as, if not better than, those of Moses and Aaron. He would have them deposed and, of course, himself put in their place. He had no regard for God’s appointment.

Like Diotrophes he loved the pre-eminence: like the Pharisees he loved the chief seat. He did not accept the rule that “whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Like the “Man of Sin” yet to come he would exalt himself above all.

Yet none abased Himself as low as the Lord Jesus nor was any exalted so high. Read again Phil.2.5-11, and see from what heights he came and to what depths He went. But those who exalt themselves will be abased, as the histories of Haman and Nebuchadnezzar attest. It is innate to human nature to assert the importance of self, but it is the work of grace in a soul which esteems another better than one’s self.

The abandonment of self-will, self-interest and self-importance is perhaps the hardest of all lessons. It can only be learned as we sit before the Lord, and like David say: “Who am I?” “If a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Whatever we are spiritually we owe to divine grace: we received from God whatever gift we have, and “if thou hast received it, why boast?”

Only as the Cross is kept in view can self, in every form, be renounced. For the Cross is the end of the man who believes: he hung with Christ on it.