“Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” (Mark 9.38)
It is right and good to have convictions. We would be lost without them.
It is right and good to have zeal. We would be lifeless without it.
The danger comes when we flip our zeal and convictions on their respective heads and use them as puppets for our own pursuit of vain glory.
God does not promise to bless prideful people. He promises to oppose them (1 Pet. 5.6) and then to humble them.
It is staggering to think that we could use somebody like Jesus and something like the gospel as a catalyst for pride. Jesus sweats humility. His gospel is humility lived out. To steal his gospel bandwith to broadcast our own glory is the height of idolatry.
To invert this is to betray the gospel. It is to promote the small ‘k’ kingdom over the big ‘K’ kingdom. It is idolatry.
The elusive balance is achieved by being governed by the gospel, not running for our own office. As a Christian I need to spend more time looking in the mirror of the word than in the mirror above my sink. I need to spend more time drinking from the reservoir of grace than from the fountain of self-righteousness.
The gospel is a glorious truth with grand implications. Much of ‘getting’ this pivots on whether or not we will daily swallow the jagged pill of its central truth: “It’s not about you.”
There is such correction, liberty and joy for us when we are marinating in the truth of the gospel of the glory of Christ.