We walked slowly down the path from the dining hall toward the main lodge where the classroom was located. Surrounded by 19 acres of beautiful west coast temperate rain forest, this former kids camp was a beautiful location for a Bible School.
I was chatting with one of our instructors while strolling back from a great meal. He was one of my favourite teachers. He was wise, he was extremely knowledgeable, he was personable, he was a great communicator and I knew he cared about me. I was a passionate young man eager to learn all I could about God’s Word and its application to my life and that to which God was calling me.
I was hanging on his every word. His perspective on the Kingdom of God I found to be exhilarating. I wanted to be the greatest follower of Jesus I could be. I wanted to be great in the Kingdom of God.
And that was a bit of a problem because I didn’t quite understand what it meant to be a servant. I didn’t quite get the fact that I was meant to be spent for the benefit of others. I was caught up in the triumphalism of the Kingdom. I would later learn that the door to my future in Jesus was in the shape of a coffin as He beckoned me to come and die.
This day I was caught up in the glory and the grandeur of God and His plan for us. At least I was until my teacher dropped the bomb…
“Dave, is that your desk in the alcove by the classroom?”
“Yes, I put it up there to set up a special place for me to really focus on my studies.”
“Don’t the other students share desks down in the library?”
“Yes, but I had access to my own desk from home so I put it up there to make my own unique space.”
And then came the bomb…
“Dave, the mindset that led you to put your desk there is that which led David to sin with Bathsheba.”
After I took a few seconds to recover from the explosion of his words I asked him to explain. He helped me to see how David thought he was above the rules. He stayed home at the time when “kings went to war”. When he should have been out with the men fighting for Israel he stayed home with the women – and that’s when he spied out Bathsheba. He was king, he could do what he wanted.
David thought the rules didn’t apply to him, and that’s what I was doing. Sure, it’s innocuous enough, my desk set up in a cute little alcove surrounded with motivational posters and quotes on the wall. When the other students would leave the classroom to go into the lodge they would all parade past my desk set up and see what an awesome space I had created for myself. All of them had to study in the library with shared desks. But not me – I was special.
And that’s just it: I thought I was special. The rules didn’t apply to me. I was above the rules. And it’s that kind of thinking that, if left unrepented of, leads to all manner of sin.
It’s amazing to think the “big ugly” sins we think we would never be capable of committing begin with a subtle mindset that the rules don’t apply to me. My bible school instructor’s confrontation was a loving rebuke to help me address a natural tendency I had to push the rules, to think I was special.
So, acting on his exhortation, I moved my desk downstairs to the library. I didn’t put up any of my personalized motivational posters. I made my desk available to all the students. Since that time I have been on a journey to beat back the belief that somehow I’m above the rules.
Do you think the rules don’t apply to you? Ask the Lord to help you see where you think you’re above the rules, then deal with it. That mindset is the root of much sin.
1 Samuel 11:1-4
“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.”
Galatians 5:9
“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
Philippians 2:3, 4
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”