Self Indulgence and Self Denial

Chocolate. Dark, rich, delicious chocolate. I have a bit of a chocolate obsession (total understatement). It truly is one of the priority food groups in my diet. I’ve wondered how I could incorporate the topic in my blog for quite some time, but alas, it just wasn’t something Jesus really talked about.

However, when pondering the topic I want to talk about in this post, I couldn’t help but see how it connected to chocolate, at least in my life anyway.

In my last post, An Easter Reflection, we talked about two choices Jesus made that have forever changed our lives. He chose to humble Himself and He chose to die on the cross for our sins.

Aside from the gratefulness we feel and express for the choices He made, there is one other response He calls us to. He wants us to do the same. Jesus said in Luke 9:23 that if anyone wanted to be His disciple, there were three things that person must do:

1. Deny him/herself
2. Take up their cross
3.  Follow Him

What does it mean to deny yourself? My first, superficial response was, “it means that I can no longer allow myself to eat chocolate!” LOL. I mean, it is somewhat of an indulgence, after all.

Seriously though, we live in a world where we are often taught to put our selves first. The rationale is that if we aren’t taking care of ourselves, how can we take care of others?

This line of thinking has even woven it’s way into Christian circles under the seemingly harmless name of, “soul care.” Now don’t get me wrong, I believe it’s important to care for our souls and to make sure we are getting the time we need with God, in His Word and with others. Those things are vital to a healthy Jesus-following life.

However, Jesus said that those who want to follow Him must deny themselves. What did He mean by that? I found a couple of insights that helped me understand the idea a little better. One of them was from the Benson Commentary, where it notes that the denying oneself is a “…rule that can never be too much observed.” It goes on to say, “…let him in all things deny his own will, however pleasing, and do the will of God, however painful.”

Isn’t it true that doing our will is so much more pleasing than doing the sometimes painful will of God? Ugh. That hits me right in the gut.

The all-encompassing idea of self-denial noted by Benson is paralleled in Ellicott’s Commentary for English readers, where he purports that it is the denial of the “whole self.” It is to deny all of one’s “…natural motives and impulses, so far as they come into conflict with the claims of Christ.”

Let us hope that chocolate does not come into conflict with the claims of Christ! 🙂

Self-denial is not just about a lack of self-indulgence. It’s really about humility– understanding  our place before God. And it’s about discipline. We must have (and desperately pray for) the discipline to avoid, even run from, our fleshly desires for things that don’t honor Jesus.

What happens if we don’t develop the humility and discipline to deny ourselves? Ellicott’s commentary brings it home with these words, “If he does not so deny himself, he is in danger, as Peter was (it is significant that the same word is used in both instances), of denying his Lord.” If we don’t deny ourselves, we may in fact end up denying Jesus! That scares me because I can so easily see that happening.

Instead of putting our self first, may we always put our Savior first.

Because Jesus embodied an attitude of humility on this earth, He was able to “take up His cross,” (with some help), just as He asks us to do. We will never be able to take up our cross unless we have first learned how to deny ourselves. 

I’m not saying it’s easy. Character development rarely comes naturally or easily. It’s a choice, a daily one.

My challenge to us this week is to chew on the idea of self-denial, to be mindful of it and to think about what it looks like at a practical level in each of our own lives. May God give us great depth of insight as we first think about it and then seek to apply it.

Every time I eat chocolate this week, it’s going to trigger my thinking 🙂

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this post or any previous ones you’ve read. Please do leave a note below. In the meantime, let us go be radiant this week.