Vanity can come at a high price !

Sunday 2 May 2021

Vanity can come at a high price !

Do not play the important part in front of the king, do not take the place of the great ! Indeed, it is better to say to you : Come up here ! and that you do not have to stoop before the prince, after your eyes have seen him. Proverbs 25: 6.7

Secular history provides a cruel example of the truth of today's proverb. Nicolas Fouquet, skilful and efficient finance minister of Louis XIV, King of France, acquired a prodigious fortune in the exercise of his functions... thanks to certain irregularities. Colbert, who aspires to his post, denounces them to the king. He hesitates to indict a minister who has restored the kingdom's finances by pulling them out of their catastrophic state.

But now Fouquet decides to give a splendid feast in honor of the king, in the superb castle he had built for himself. The incredible luxury deployed on this occasion acted as a trigger on Louis XIV : he had him arrested. Fouquet then undergoes a resounding 3-year trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a fortress where he died 16 years later. Why hadn't he read the proverb quoted today !

The Christian of the 21st century hardly has the opportunity to be in Fouquet's situation anymore. However, is he immune to vanity ? We know very well not, especially since this sin is not the exclusive property of wealthy people. Besides material goods, health, physical strength and beauty, intelligence, knowledge, education, skill in its many forms... in short, absolutely everything that the human being has been endowed with of God and all that he can acquire by his abilities can become an object of vanity and, therefore, an occasion to fall !

This is frightening enough that we are on our guard and seek remedy in the Word. What is she saying ? What have you got that you haven't received ? And if you received it, why are you making it proud, as if you had not received it ? (1 Corinthians 4: 7). Nothing therefore, in the Christian, should become a subject of vanity. James is adamant : Any such pride is bad (James 4:16) ; in contrast, love does not boast (1 Corinthians 13: 4). Finally, divine wisdom teaches us an ever-current prayer : Remove falsehood and lies from me (Proverbs 30: 8).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)