Joel M Bradshaw

5They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.–Matthew 23

Jesus accused the Pharisees of being consumed by image and opinion. These are the primary two symptoms of self-worship in the modern social media age. Living life on Facebook or Instagram. Never missing an opportunity to put a picture or share a feat. And these always are meant to craft a narrative and to make you look good or to get a favorable response.

When other people’s opinion matters most, then humble service for God’s sake becomes second. This is because secretly it’s worship of the self and not God. Today’s text hits home for me. I find myself caring too much about what others think of me. This is revealed by how much I care about responses to social media posts…even to these daily Bible blogs.

I have a lot of work to do in this area. This is most likely the biggest area at the door of my heart where hypocrisy knocks and knocks. Our social media fixation only exacerbates the existing worship of self.–JMB