Here is the third part of THE SIN OF TAKING OURSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY.
- In THE SIN OF TAKING OURSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY — PART 1, we considered the center of the universe, the heart of a human being.
- In THE SIN OF TAKING OURSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY — PART 2, we examined political examples of the sin of taking ourselves too seriously.
Here we will look at the solution.
An Absence Of Honor
Honor is now a foreign concept to many Americans, but a constitutional republic cannot function unless most people are honorable. If we have no honor, we cannot hold our leaders accountable. We won’t be motivated to vote for honorable men and women. We won’t be motivated to vote the scoundrels out of office.
Consider how our Constitution works. Our public officials swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. Why? Unless most of our public officials are honorable enough to keep their oath of office, the check and balances in the Constitution WILL NOT WORK!
What does an impeachment actually involve? Congress is supposed to impeach a public official when they believe that official has violated their oath of office. Now consider two possible scenarios.
- What if a public official is doing something more than a third of the members in Congress (especially the Senate) want done? Even if they know it is wrong, Congress can refuse to impeach that official, put that oath breaker on trial in the Senate, and remove that public official from office.
- If a public official is a member of the opposition and enough people in Congress hate that official, Congress can use impeachment and trial in the Senate to harass and shame that official.
In recent years both of scenarios above have happened. Is that because there is something wrong with the Constitution? No. That is because there is something wrong with us. We lack the moral character — the necessary willingness to adhere to a code of honor — required to make the Constitution work.
What Is The Solution?
Are logic and reason the solution? Is jilldomschot wrong? Should we learn to suppress our emotions? Should we strive to be like Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and eliminate our emotions? Logic is, of course, something we should prize. Yet if we are Christians we must admit God desires something besides reason from us. He wants us to love Him and each other.
Matthew 22:36-40 New American Standard Bible
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Does the great commandment make our emotions more important than our ability to reason? Must we prioritize our emotions over our reason? Agape love, the kind of love God requires of us, actually requires us to make a choice that involves reason as well as emotion. That is, if we choose to love God and neighbor, then we will do so for both logical and emotional reasons.
The Greek word agape is often translated “love” in the New Testament. How is “agape love” different from other types of love? The essence of agape love is goodwill, benevolence, and willful delight in the object of love. Unlike our English word love, agape is not used in the New Testament to refer to romantic or sexual love. Nor does it refer to close friendship or brotherly love, for which the Greek word philia is used. Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is distinguished from the other types of love by its lofty moral nature and strong character. Agape love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13.
https://www.gotquestions.org/agape-love.html
So, how can we solve this problem? We cannot. We need to see the strife between us as part of a larger problem. Instead of trusting in God, we each are trying to be God. We need to let God be God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 New American Standard Bible
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Do you want to be someone who is actually worthy of honor? To be honorable we must adhere to a Godly code of conduct. You have a Bible? Take the time to study it. Start with the Gospel of John. Study the Book of Romans and the Book of Hebrews carefully. Then consider the fact that the New Testament contains hundreds of references to the Old Testament, and slowly work your way through the whole Bible, remembering that we only have value because God loves us and sacrificed His Son for our sins.
A Bit Of Amusement
Here is a little amusement. We wouldn’t want to take ourselves too seriously, would we?
Citizen Tom 
Reblogged all three @ https://fsmandfsmwo.blog/2023/01/23/the-sin-of-taking-ourselves-too-seriously/
Thank you.
Honor and loyalty — both are important and can shift perspective off self. Re logic, it isn’t unimportant. I wish more people knew how to use if formally. Why is it not taught in schools? However, it’s worthless without wisdom because it’s only as good as its premises. You can employ flawless logic with wrong premises. It’s like these computer models scientists are so fond of. They aren’t reality, but they aren’t meaningless, either, as long as their inputs are reasonable, which they so often aren’t. They’re faulty from the getgo. I find it hilarious how the media will run with these models and most people don’t know enough to understand that they aren’t real.
One of my favorite quotes is from Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Got to seriously look at the premises from which we have formulated our conclusions.
Much of Western Civilization comes from the Greek and the Roman civilizations, but the New Pagans of our time still have no use for Western Civilization. I suppose that is because what survives came from people who knew how to think properly, and they don’t want proper thinking. They want their conclusions no matter what.
Never forget. Aristotle did not invent or discover logic. He documented something we already know, but we don’t always do properly, think.