Sunday, Keller Writes More On the Natural Condition of the Ego

LON SOLOMON'S BACK WITH A SERMON FROM GENESIS 15---THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION PART 1

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EXCERPT FROM THE FREEDOM OF SELF-FORGETFULNESS---THE PATH TO TRUE CHRISTIAN JOY

SO, FIRST OF ALL, THE EGO IS EMPTY. Secondly, because it is like a bloated stomach that is distended, it is also painful. And thirdly, the ego is incredibly busy---in other words, it is always drawing attention to itself, It is incredibly busy trying to fill the emptiness. And it is incredibly busy doing two things in particular---comparing and boasting. You can see them both in the passage. First of all, in 1 Corinthians 14:6 that there is no full stop after the word pride. Paul does not say, 'Then you will not take pride.' No, he says 'Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.' That is the very essence of what it means to have a normal human ego. The way the normal human ego tries to fill its emptiness and deal with its discomfort is by comparing itself to other people. All the time.

In his famous chapter on pride in Mere Christianity,  C.S. Lewis points out that pride is by nature competitive.  It is competitiveness that is at the very heart of pride:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about.

In other words, we are only proud of being more successful, more intelligent or more good-looking than the next person, and when we are in the presence of someone who is more successful, intelligent and good -looking than we are, we lose all pleasure in what we had. That is because we really had no pleasure in it. We were proud of it. As Lewis says, pride is the pleasure of having more than the next person Pride is the pleasure of being more than the next person. Lust may drive a man to sleep with a beautiful woman---but at least lust makes him want her. Pride drives a man to sleep with a beautiful woman just to prove he can do it above the others. Pride destroys the ability to have any real pleasure from her.

When I was at school, my mother kept saying things like, You know, honey, you ought to join the chess club. I would say, Mum, I hate chess. Yes, I know, she would say, but it will look so good on your college application...So, at school, I did all kinds of things that I had absolutely no interest in doing for themselves. I was simply putting together a resume. That is what our egos are doing all the time. Doing jobs we have no pleasure in, doing diets we take no pleasure in. Doing all kinds of things not for the pleasaure of doing them, but because we are trying to put together an impressive curriculum vitae. By comparing ourselves to other people and trying to make ourselves look better than others, we are boasting. Trying to recommend ourselves, trying to create a self-esteem resume becaue we are desperate to fill our sense of inadequacy and emptiness. The ego is so busy. So busy all the time.

---Pastor Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Next week, Keller deals with the last characteristic of the natural ego, it's fragility before beginning the section on The Transformed View of the Self under the auspices and guidance of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit---our condition is otherwise hopeless!

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