by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
January, 1935
Vainglory
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves” (Phil. 2:3).
Vainglory is specially a sin of “spiritual” people. True, we see in the fops (dudes) of the world a glory which is empty and vain. We see people placing an utterly foolish value on their birth, education, reputation, and place in society. But this is to be expected of people who reject Christ's view of things. It is sad enough, in all conscience, to see men and women who were made for the glory of God, consenting to be devotees of a glory that is hollow, empty and shallow. But what shall we say when we find people who call themselves after the name of the rejected and despised Man of Sorrows, secretly glorying in the vanities of life?
This vainglory is a very subtle thing. How frequently do we glide into a subdued and hidden sense of superiority over others, because grace has reached us! Have you never heard a preacher speaking to sinners as from a superior pedestal, his very tones showing that he thinks himself superior to his audience? Now, is the matter righted by his saying, as he often does, that he does not want to give the impression that he thinks himself to be on a higher and worthier plane than his listeners. The very words echo back on him with a hollow and empty sound—he shows so palpably that he feels his superiority, in spite of his disclaimer. What a vainglory it is for a man who has been lost in sin to think well of himself because Another pitied him in his way and stooped to bless and deliver him! There is great danger in “giving testimony” in a meeting, of secretly doing so with vainglory. Some people even magnify their past sinfulness in order to attract the attention to their changed life. I remember a man doing this and adding, with complaisance, “I'm a miracle of grace!” Personally, I thought he was a miracle of vainglory.
The Holy Spirit does not usually work alongside of the man who draws attention to himself. If you want people to get their eyes fixed on you—your superior sanctity, your wit, your ready speech, your eloquence, your dramatic power, or your logic, then do not expect the Holy Spirit to help you in this business. He is bent on bringing glory to CHRIST, and not to the preacher. It is a very low thing to glory in your natural gifts. “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). What gift of yours did you create? And if every power you possess is the result of the beneficence of another, why should you glory as if you deserved the praise? Of course, if you really did create your own beauty, intellect, powers of speech, then you ought to be praised and glorying in yourself is not vain. But did you create these capacities? All you had to do with these things was to cultivate them, and God will never deny any true worth that is due to your credit in this direction.
But strange to say, there are more subtle regions of vainglory than those already mentioned. Reference need not to be made to those who can only rejoice in the advance of their own church or branch of work, and who feel jealous when others are used of God. Such vainglory is beneath contempt. But amongst those who seek to walk before God without rebuke, there may creep in a spirit of vainglory. A little holy inner circle becomes consciously, or more often unconsciously, formed. Others are supposed not to be saved so “high up”; they are not “so fully Spirit-filled”; or perhaps they are not so utterly self-less.
Now, nothing would so shock these people as to be told they had become formed into a little inner circle, and virtually said to other estimable Christians who were living up to their light: “Stand thou on that side, for I am holier than thou.” They would be shocked if you were to tell them that their actions plainly denote that the spirit of vainglory is lurking like a canker beneath the surface of their lives—yes, deeper than their consciousness possibly.
I have seen this spirit creep into the lives of those who have been walking very near to God; and in one way or another God has dealt with it. When He could, apparently, take no softer way, He has allowed some development of spiritual life in another circle—bringing in a new line of things. Those who had gradually come to regard themselves as the people, now saw their deficiency. It was a very humbling revelation. And now, in turn, those who had been used to break up the little inner circle which had become self-righteous, become themselves a little proud, and a spirit of “spiritual” superiority begins to possess them. And so it goes on.
My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Can we not all take a low place before God, for “If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Gal. 6:3). Let nothing be done through vainglory. Not one of us has anything to boast of. And let us remember that nothing—I say it thoughtfully—nothing is so hateful to God as the spirit that says of another: “Stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou.” Those who say this by their actions and spirit of isolation and superiority, are a smoke in the nostrils of our Lord. The moment we say, “God, I thank Thee, I am not as other men,” we become Pharisees; our true place is to say, “God be merciful to me, the sinner.”—Dudley Kidd.
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