The human heart is hopelessly corrupt. (Jer. 17:9) It would often rather receive a reward for a job poorly done than a rebuke for being so slipshod. The same principle is also at play on the other end of the equation with respect to what we are willing to cheer. We prefer a shine that stinks to an ordinary odor. We click on stinky links as we scroll by the dry. Advertise a skunk and you will get clicks. Promote the plain and you will get ghosted. And that is why we do not recognize real brilliance when we see it. We reward others for doing what we do in order to receive something back in like, kind, and quality.
John 5:44
How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue. Those who excuse their own hypocrisy by rewarding the hypocrisy of others receive back the curse of being too readily impressed by hypocrisy. When you cash in your honest currency for corrupted coins, you begin to do commerce with those who pay you back in corrupted coin. You begin to deal in the currency of hypocrisy as a matter of course. One of the punishments for sin is becoming numb to it. A moral callous begins to build up the more you rub against sin without recoiling from it. One of the penalties for pawning off counterfeit coins is a readiness to accept flattery in return for them. Fiat respectability is rewarded with flattery. Sycophants can't deal in real currency (and wouldn't want to if they could).
All that glitters is not gold and stink is no substitute for flavor. Better to be ignored for being good and boring than to be in the spotlight for being a fraud.
No comments:
Post a Comment