Protecting What Doesn’t Need Protecting
The word protection means to defend, guard, cover, or shield against loss. We get insurance as “protection” against loss from fire. We may want a lock and key on our house to protect us against loss from intruders. We may use firearms as personal protection against loss of life. Most people want protection for something, but what happens when we seek to protect something that doesn’t need to be protected? It could lead to some bad results. In the most extreme cases, someone might get hurt.
There are some things that don’t need to be protected. Many try to protect themselves from their own sins instead of confessing them and asking for forgiveness as God says to do (James 5:16). This will simply create more shame and lead to withdrawal from others. Sometimes people try to protect their worthless possessions (Luke 12:15). Jealousy will create suspicion, undermine love, and destroy friendships. Protecting unscriptural religious traditions will create strife and cause divisions in the church (1 Corinthians 3:3).
Why do we protect things that don’t need to be protected? Pride reasons that the self will be destroyed! (It is really pride that will be destroyed, a good thing.) Pride will then lead us to bite, kick, scratch, and claw at one another for “protection.” Paul wrote, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Galatians 5:15). Instead of trying to protect our sinful pride, we should follow Jesus advice. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).