Desire
Paraphrasing John Calvin: The evil in our desires does not lie (usually) in what we want, but that we want it too much. Discuss.
posted by Aaron @ 4:27 PM
3 Comments
promise and pleasure
pastoral thoughts about conscience, culture and Christ
Monday, July 02, 2007
3 Comments:
I think Calvin is right. And I'm glad he modified it with the "usually." Slightly wanting to murder someone isn't much better than greatly wanting to murder someone.
I think that's what I've seen in my life though. For example, it's not wrong to want to be accepted, but it is wrong when the praise and admiration of men becomes a goal or idol.
This quote by Calvin Seerveld really convicted me the other day. "...[T]hat which a person continues greedily to desire most...that the Lord eats away stealthily at that which a person has and wants more of (like the fellow in Luke 12:18). If you covet your neighbour's wealth, God punishes you with the insatiable discontent of the miser. If you covet sexual satisfaction with your neighbour's spouse, God will spoil the joy one knows in erotic troths (cf. Proverbs 6:23-29). If you covet a career success and becoming well-known, God the moth will eat away the fabric of your respect for others and punish you with the reputation of riding roughshod over your fellow workers..."
I love that term -- "God the moth." God spoils "met" desire if does not adhere to his standard of holiness.
He's right, that Calvin...
I like it. Another great insight about our desires is:
"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desres not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatues, folling about with drink and sex and ambitions..." - CS Lewis
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