Luke 6:26

THE DANGERS OF POPULARITY

‘Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!’

Luke 6:26

It is more than probable that, if men speak well of you, their judgment of you is fallacious. Men are fallible judges of one another’s real character; yet however fallacious the popular estimate, it has a direct tendency to carry us along with it. Then follow certain practical consequences—all of them, in a Christian point of view, serious and even disastrous. What are they?

I. The loss of humility.—How can he, of whom all men speak well, know what true humility is? Where pride is enthroned there cannot be the mind meet for God’s kingdom.

II. The loss of watchfulness.—If we are not conscious, and painfully conscious, of infirmity and of sinfulness, how can we watch? Why should we watch?

III. The loss of strength.—Praise is an essentially enfeebling and enervating thing. Praise promotes repose; self-satisfaction first, and as its natural result the intermission of effort.

To be well spoken of makes a man covet approbation, and at last live for it. The praise of men has a direct tendency to attach us to earth, and makes us forget heaven. To be a Christian is to have your heart in heaven, where Christ sitteth.

Dean Vaughan.