Midges and Camels
Monday, October 21, 2024
Alas for you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . Blind guides! You strain off a midge, yet gulp down a camel! Matt. 23:23, 24, NEB.
I’m going to be healthy if it kills me!” Sound ludicrous? Not to the person who has made a healthy lifestyle into a substitute god. We call that addiction. Even good things can become a trap if they separate us from our sources of spiritual strength.
According to Jesus, the two greatest commandments were first to love God above all else, and second to love your neighbor as you love yourself. When persons have strong, committed relationships to God (vertical) and to close friends and family (horizontal), they are rich in spirituality. But when something-even religious behavior—becomes the centerpiece of their lives, spirituality vanishes. Gradually such people lose the ability to think and act according to their conscience and values. We observe that they have become addicted to an activity or object and have lost control of their lives.
The danger is that we may become addicted even to good and positive things. Following a prudent diet or getting proper exercise has many benefits. But when one becomes obsessive-compulsive about such practices, then the addiction can be very destructive. To make things worse, addicts rely on denial and create self-delusions in order to protect their addictions. The Pharisees were religious addicts. Christ described the results of their obsession with the letter of the law, and called them hypocrites and blind guides.
I once heard a zealot say, “I’m going to be healthy if it kills me!” He was arguing with a nutritionist concerned by his pallor and emaciated frame—evidences of the deficiencies of his extremely narrow dietary regimen. He had become so rigidly compulsive about avoiding minor dietary indiscretions that he ignored matters of greater importance. In the process he was alienating his children and other family members and creating disunity in his church by demanding a fat-free vegan potluck line to accommodate his dietary “standards.” In addition, he discouraged new members by preaching his dietary doctrine. While endeavoring to “strain off” the midges of dietary imperfection, he was gulping down camels wholesale! The man had become a religious addict—in this case addicted to dietary behaviors.
Lord, please stay in the center of my life today, and save me from any danger of swallowing camels!
I’m going to be healthy if it kills me!” Sound ludicrous? Not to the person who has made a healthy lifestyle into a substitute god. We call that addiction. Even good things can become a trap if they separate us from our sources of spiritual strength.
According to Jesus, the two greatest commandments were first to love God above all else, and second to love your neighbor as you love yourself. When persons have strong, committed relationships to God (vertical) and to close friends and family (horizontal), they are rich in spirituality. But when something-even religious behavior—becomes the centerpiece of their lives, spirituality vanishes. Gradually such people lose the ability to think and act according to their conscience and values. We observe that they have become addicted to an activity or object and have lost control of their lives.
The danger is that we may become addicted even to good and positive things. Following a prudent diet or getting proper exercise has many benefits. But when one becomes obsessive-compulsive about such practices, then the addiction can be very destructive. To make things worse, addicts rely on denial and create self-delusions in order to protect their addictions. The Pharisees were religious addicts. Christ described the results of their obsession with the letter of the law, and called them hypocrites and blind guides.
I once heard a zealot say, “I’m going to be healthy if it kills me!” He was arguing with a nutritionist concerned by his pallor and emaciated frame—evidences of the deficiencies of his extremely narrow dietary regimen. He had become so rigidly compulsive about avoiding minor dietary indiscretions that he ignored matters of greater importance. In the process he was alienating his children and other family members and creating disunity in his church by demanding a fat-free vegan potluck line to accommodate his dietary “standards.” In addition, he discouraged new members by preaching his dietary doctrine. While endeavoring to “strain off” the midges of dietary imperfection, he was gulping down camels wholesale! The man had become a religious addict—in this case addicted to dietary behaviors.
Lord, please stay in the center of my life today, and save me from any danger of swallowing camels!
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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