You’re reading JESUS: LESSONS IN LOVE, by Eric Elder, featuring thirty inspiring devotionals based on the greatest “lover” of all time, Jesus Christ. Also available in paperback and eBook formats in our bookstore for a donation of any size!

A friend was praying with me one day when she said something so profound I wrote it down.  I didn’t even fully understand what she was saying at the time, and I’m not sure I completely understand it still!  But I knew that what she said contained a truth that I needed to hear and explore. She said:

“Beware of unbroken men, and beware of unbrokenness in yourself.”  

She was concerned that there may be people who would want to exploit some of my gifts that God had given me for their own purposes, rather than His purposes.  And she was concerned that because of my own wants and needs and desires, that I might be swayed to believe and follow those who wanted to put my gifts to use.

I understood the concern, but I still had a lot of questions.  What is an “unbroken man”?  What does “unbrokenness” look like?  How should I respond when presented with various opportunities to use my gifts?

There’s a passage in Matthew 16 that sheds some light on this for me.  It begins with Jesus warning the disciples:

“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees”  (Matthew 16:5b).  

Jesus goes on to explain this in a way that the disciples could understand that they were to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders of the day.

While the Pharisees and Sadducees claimed to follow the teachings of God, and may have at times been sincerely trying to follow Him, they often succumbed to protecting themselves and their traditions rather than giving their lives truly for others.  In a sense, they were still “unbroken men,” men who still seemed to “have it together” and were trying desperately to “keep it together,” when in reality, they would have been better off realizing that they didn’t have it together at all, and it was only God who could hold them together.

But within the very same passage, Jesus shows that it wasn’t only the Pharisees and Saducees that the disciples needed to be on guard against, but themselves as well, their own thoughts and desires.  Jesus shows how quickly we can go from following God’s thoughts and desires to following our own when He asks the disciples who they think He is.

Simon Peter answered:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).  Jesus commends Peter by saying, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven,” and then by describing the powerful role Peter will play in building God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven.

But in the very next passage, as Jesus explains that He will soon suffer, die and be raised to life again, Peter exclaims:  “Never Lord!  This shall never happen to you!”  Look at what Jesus says to Peter this time:

“Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:23). 

Within a span of only a few minutes, Peter went from being commended for expressing a truth that he had received from God, to being condemned for expressing a falsehood that came from his own thinking.

How can we guard against “unbrokenness,” against harmful thoughts and teachings, whether in others or in ourselves?  Jesus tells us one way in the next sentence:

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it’” (Matthew 16:24-25). 

If our thinking is based on trying to save ourselves, protect ourselves, defend ourselves, it may be our undoing.  While it’s not always wrong to save, protect and defend ourselves, it is if it keeps us from doing what’s right.

Instead of trying to “keep it together,” my prayer is to realize how truly broken I am.  In the end, it’s by putting my full faith and trust in God that I will truly be able to “keep it together.”

Prayer: Father, help me to trust You fully, so that I can love others fully, without regard for my own life.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.