The greatest power the devil has in this world is our true love of what is good, and being willing to seek it above all else.

We are all ruled by different desires, and we very easily live after these, instead of living from the law of what is truly good and right, denying ourselves whenever our desires clash with this true law of God in what is good.

The power of sin in us is when we do not truly seek what is good, putting this first. To seek what is good in seeking God and all He has to say, and seeking to walk rightly in all that is just, wise, and full of light.

Much of our sin is when we do not give ourselves to this true work. When we do not seek wisdom for wisdom’s sake, or righteousness for righteousness’ sake, but seek it merely for an image or to fantasize over. When we merely treat study and intellect like a play-thing or some jousting match. And a great majority of Christians today are just as guilty of this as much as anyone in the world.

So much of our ways can be weighed in if we are truly seeking wisdom, this will show us how much we are sincerely seeking God and to walk righteously before Him.

This is the humble work, the unseen work. And what many want instead is a false glory.

The Lord teaches us that there is the path to real glory, and this path is lowly and hidden, found by those seeking true godliness and wisdom, righteousness and what is good. And there are also many false paths to glory.

Eve reached out in the garden for a false glory. She didn’t stay with God, looking to His ways to lead her to a real and right glory, but she tried to cheat her way to it.

What is quite phenomenal about Eve is that the thing she reached out for was a kind of wisdom and knowledge. Women have gotten a lot of abuse throughout the centuries as being ones who are not intellectuals or scholars, when that was the very thing that Eve desired—that and a false glory.

Her attempt at glory was corrupt because it sidestepped God and tried to take the place of God. This is the very same pride of the devil. But glory is often taught to us as being a sinful desire, as if it is always pride and wrong. That’s like saying any desire for knowledge or wisdom is wrong…

All of us are made to possess right glory, the sin in mankind is that we seek glory in a very wrong way, as well as not knowing the pathway to find real glory.

God is showing us how to have real glory, and it is in truly humbling ourselves to Christ and learning of Him. In following Him in the pathway of seeking true godliness and holiness. Of learning who God is and what He is really saying to mankind, and forming our lives to it.

“Wrong glory” is something that is always trying to get a foothold in us. We can see how people pursue a wrong glory, through fame or riches, beauty or power. And God is showing us not just that “riches” are foolish, but all wrong glory is foolish.

What we need to understand in the church is that this is just as real and true in the church as anywhere else.

If we are not careful, we can come near the great wisdom and truth of God with just as evil a heart as Eve did in the garden with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.

Many take the Truth of God in a very evil way. They take hold of “wisdom” in a way for elitism and contempt, harshness and bitterness, pride and self seeking. For seeking an image of being “wise” and philosophical. It is horribly marvelous just how little fear we have in how we seek to take hold of God’s Word, and yet we are so easily sinful and wrong in our approach to it!

Many people try to take hold of God’s Word for a false glory. From people who seek to twist the Scriptures to make some “proof” of an inequality (and therefore an “elitism” for them), to those chasing fame and wealth through abuse of it. All of this is no different than Eve in the garden chasing a wrong glory.

The problem for us in neglecting the true work of obedience and holiness is that we will be busy with false work. And if we put off the true work of glory, we will always fill ourselves up with a false “glory”. This false glory is born from inequality (which we feel supports superiority), contempt, selfishness, half truths and “easy wisdom”.

And one of the great lies in the church today is that any concern for our glory is somehow an attack on God’s glory and a lack of humility. When the real issue is that we are all too busy seeking a false glory rather than seeking the pathway to true glory which Christ taught us.

When we so “rebuke” Christians like this, we leave their false ways of “glory” to fester in their hearts and never be checked for the great sin that they are. And this sin in them generally destroys their walk, and poisons them away from right believing in God, to a believing that is all centered around some perverse favoritism for themselves and some elitism. They feel they are elite because of something according to the flesh, whether it be where they were born, what family they were born to, what gender they were born as, or whether it be some fantasy of being superior to others, deeper than others, because of lived experiences, all of mankind is chasing the drug of this “superiority”.

And one of the great tests of the true work of Christ in our hearts is if that great secret festering of pride in us has actually been broken or not. It can only be broken when we see that the true path is in choosing true righteousness and making every effort after it. How wicked that the devil teaches people in the church the very opposite on this point! Practically teaching that seeking righteousness is opposed to receiving Christ!

Self righteousness is not about seeking a true righteous living and seeking a true worth in life through this, but it is being content without a real righteous living!

We all need glory, and we will seek a true glory or a wicked and selfish “glory” born of wicked means. All of these wicked means oppress others and deny God for them. As Eve sought this false elevation, this is the very same superiority that so many seek today. It’s the bedrock of so much of the world’s wickedness such as racism, sexism, and classism. That need for a false superiority. And while we talk about how wrong something like racism is, still we don’t see the heart of it. How we walk in the very same efforts of superiority that was the heart of those great sins, we just seek it in different ways.