THE BATTLE WITHIN OURSELVES (2:15-20)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

(See Matt 6:19-34; 1 Cor 2:14-3:4; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 2:1-6, 6:12; Col 2:8,15-23; Jas 4:12-9)

• What is 'the world' to which John is referring?

• How are 'the world' and 'the flesh' related? How is its value system inculcated in us?

• How do worldly values commonly manifest amongst Christians? (and in ourselves)

• When & how did Christ overcome the world? (Jn 16:33)

• How can we overcome the world?

John says it was a good thing that people left the church.

• Should we expect church to be 'safe space', or is that naive? (Acts 20:28-31)

• When should we persuade folk to stay, and when is it right to let them go?

NOTES ON THE PASSAGE

Having reassured his readers of his confidence in the genuineness of their faith, John now teaches them about how to overcome long-term. He first addresses their struggles with the ongoing effects of the Fall, in their bodies, souls and spirits (2:15-17). Then he warns them there will be an intensifying struggle to protect doctrinal truth within the Church (2:18-23), but that the Spirit's anointing will give each of them discernment (2:24-27).

WHAT IS 'THE WORLD'?

When John speaks of ‘the world’ here, he’s not referring to the globe, or to the human race. The term (’kosmos’) originally referred to the beautiful orderedness of Creation before the Fall. It’s where our words ‘cosmology’ and ‘cosmetic’ come from.

But when Adam put himself under Satan’s authority by obeying him rather than God (Rom 6:16), he also surrendered his dominion over Creation. The whole world now lies in the power of the evil one (5:19), and there is a 'spirit of the world' (1 Cor 2:12) also called 'the prince of the power of the air' (Eph 2:2,3) which operates in the vast majority of the human race, and used to operate in us. In this context, 'the world' therefore means a spiritual kingdom in opposition to God's kingdom.

Being aware that we live in both the material realm and the spiritual, is something Western civilization has largely lost sight of. But it's essential if we are to understand that we live in a battlezone, and can expect to come under attack because we are Christ's. We are no longer of this world, though we are still in it. And therefore the world hates us (Jn 17:6,14-16). "In the world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33).

This is not an academic doctrine. It is a reality that we can only know by faith. Abraham was aware that he was an expat, a foreign immigrant, to the Canaanites whose land he had been promised. He continued living in tents like a nomad, all through his life; even though he believed God's promise. But for us, reality is not so obvious; and yet maintaining our separateness is just as needful. It is only when we experience adversity that cannot be explained in human terms, and which clearly originate because we are Christ's - persecution, or supernatural events - that our 'transient/pilgrim' status becomes clearly manifest.

The earth is still the Lord’s, by right of creation. But Satan has created a hierarchy of spiritual authorities - thrones and dominions, powers, spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms (Eph 1:21, 6:12) - all designed to keep men in thrall. However as Daniel foresaw, that kingdom of darkness is passing away as the Kingdom of Christ takes over. One is temporary and transient, the other is enduring and eternal.

The same values that Adam and Eve adopted - that the fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and could make her like God - now manifest themselves in us all as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Christ was tempted in these same three ways: 'turn these stones into bread', receive world-wide power by worshipping Satan, base-jump into fame.

The world operates in all three dimensions of our being. Our bodies experience the lust of the flesh: greed, addictions, physical lust. Our souls experience the lust of the eyes: covetuousness. And our spirits are full of the pride of life: the pride which thinks we can be a self-made man, and which displaces God from His rightful place on the throne of our hearts. We will look at each of these in more detail, in a moment.

Love of the world and its values, is totally incompatible with love of the Father. No-one can serve two masters: inevitably we will love one and hate the other (Matt 6:19-24). We cannot serve God and mammon, for example. We cannot seek holiness and indulge in sexual lust. And we must not seek status and pride of place. All of these may give a transient satisfaction, but soon leave us lusting for more. Living by the world's values will kill our fellowship with the Father and the Son stone dead. 'Those who are in the flesh cannot please God' (Rom 8:8).

Whilst there are practical steps we can and should take to protect ourselves from the world's temptations, loving the world is, as the word 'love' implies, an issue of the heart. We cannot of ourselves obey this command of John's. When we sin for example by greedily over-indulging ourselves, the remedy is not just to confess our over-indulgence, but to confess that our heart has gone astray, and to seek cleansing through the blood of Jesus. He is the guarantor of the New Covenant, under which God has promised to write His laws on our hearts and minds!

HOW ARE WORLDLY VALUES INCULCATED IN US?

While the world is a spiritual entity or kingdom, in another sense it simply reflects our fallenness. It doesn't need to work hard to persuade us, for it is based on knowledge of our fallen nature. That's why John refers to the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life as being 'all that is in the world'. When advertising agencies seek to sell a new car, they know how man's nature works: so they boast about its acceleration, they pose a beautiful woman on its bonnet, and emphasise how smoothly it rides. Pride, lust of the eyes, and lust of the flesh are powerful selling tools!

Worldly values are also passed on generationally. My paternal grandmother vowed that her three sons would all become doctors, and they did! She came from a well-to-do, 'succesful' family, and she inculcated those same values in her children. My Dad was a very intelligent, high-achieving person, for whom 98 out of 100 in my maths test was not quite good enough! I too have often put 'success' above spiritual values, both for myself and my children.

Nowadays peer pressure, greatly amplified by social media 'influencers', is a massive agent of conformity to this world. The constant presence of such norms, coupled with a lack of assurance of one's identity due to outsourced parenting, makes teenagers extremely vulnerable. And leaving home for University, with its 'Freshers Week' temptations and freedom from all restraint, wrecks many a young Christian's lifestyle.

When the Devil cannot get us to conform by blandishments and subtle pressure, he will use persecution.

THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH

Each form of worldly temptation is at heart, a worshipping of something other than God. The lust of the flesh refers to putting our bodies and their appetites before our love of and desire for God. I once knew a pastor who had been a body-builder: it perhaps shouldn't have come as a surprise when he suddenly abandoned his wife and children for a lover.

Having described his own hunger for the righteousness of Christ, Paul urges the Philippians to follow his example and not that of the 'foodies' within the church. "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame - who set their mind on earthly things" (Phil 3:18,19)

In building his case for the universal sinfulness of mankind, he speaks of men whom 'God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies amngst themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator' (Rom 1:24,25)

Materialism and the lust for wealth is another aspect. Jesus taught that 'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also' (Matt 6:19-24). Whatever assets we try and accumulate for our security, will be devalued by corrosion or depreciation, or stolen by others! The object of your visual focus, he said, determined the state of your heart. Our eyes naturally move in unison: it's impossible for us to focus on two separate objects at once. No-one can serve two bosses effectively. We cannot serve God and Mammon.

Materialism can creep into our attitudes over the years, even when in times past we accepted that our faith would cost us. The Hebrews, who had previously willingly suffered persecution and plunder, seem to have been at risk of drawing back from the life of faith (Heb 10:32-39). Holding onto what we have, can be just as much of a problem as wanting more.

Focussing on our material security is the root cause of much anxiety (Matt 5:25-34). If we trusted God's universal care for His Creation, and put His kingdom first, He would take care of all our needs. Jesus's teaching is peppered with 'Fear not!' statements, and yet we don't consider anxiety as a spiritual problem, or a manifestation of the flesh.

Body building has been another form of such self-worship for many years. Online influencers have created a craze for the perfect look, with its resulting multiple plastic surgery operations. Footballers focus on finding a unique hairstyle, nail bars are two a penny, and narcissism is almost universal in Generation Z. How can we escape such pervasive cultural influences?

• Peer group pressure around body image is inevitably strongest in the young, and Paul advises young Timothy to 'flee youthful lusts' (2 Tim 2:22).

• Those whose parents have instilled a strong sense of their Christian identity, will be least vulnerable to the pull of belonging in a peer group.

• Peter warns against false teachers who 'allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error' (2 Pet 2:18-22)

• We can 'reverse-engineer' Jesus's advivce about materialism, by consciously 'laying up treasures in heaven' (3:16-21) in order to 'set our hearts on things which are above'.

• But ultimately the strongest safeguard will be a single-hearted commitment to worshipping God, and to following Christ in taking up our cross.

THE LUST OF THE EYES, OR MIND

The tenth commandment was 'Thou shalt not covet' (Ex 20:17), and it was the only one the young Saul of Tarsus found impossible to keep (Rom 7:7,8). The very fact that coveting was forbidden, generated all kinds of illicit desires in his heart. 'Stolen fruit tastes sweeter!'

'Keeping up with the Joneses', 'eye candy' in advertising, 'buy now' offers, influencers' lifestyles - all are designed to work on our natural covetuousness, envy and jealousy. Way back in the Garden of Eden, Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was 'pleasing to the eye'. And at Jericho, despite its gold and silver being sacrosanct, Achan 'saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold - and coveted and took them' (Josh 7:20,21).

But of course, envying someone's material possessions is far less dangerous than envying them their 'trophy wife', or ogling random women across the street. Jesus said, 'Anyone who looks at a woman in order to lust after her, has already committed adultery in his heart'. And yet pornography is now so deeply entrenched in our society and our media, that only a minority of pastors - let alone Christian men - can claim to be free of it. Divorce and remarriage are seen as a way of regularising and making adulterous relationships respectable, when God's original intent was that 'two shall become one' permanently.

David, whose heart was so set on worshipping the Lord that he is described as 'a man after God's own heart', fell into terrible temptation with Bathsheba as a result of voyeurism (2 Sam 11:2). His initial sin then led to arranging for her husband's death. The upshot was a dead baby and months of pretence until God in His mercy sent Nathan to confront him. Long term, he was told 'the sword shall never depart from your house'. One of his sons raped his daughter, and was eventually killed by her brother Absalom. Later Absalom rebelled against his father and raped each of his father's wives, before seeking to kill him. And when Bathsheba eventually gave birth to Solomon, though he was the wisest of men he committed utter folly by marrying women of other faiths and worshipping their idols.

We cannot blame God for our weaknesses. God cannot be tempted, and never tempts anyone Himself (Jas 1:13). He may allow us to be tempted but never beyond what we are capable of resisting (1 Cor 10:13). We are tempted and enticed by our own desires! 'Desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death' (Jas 1:14,15)

How to overcome covetuousness and sexual lust?

• Practicing thankfulness and being content with what you have, is an antidote to covetous envy and jealousy.

• Generosity is also a great antidote, as it focusses one's attention on those who have less than you, and reminds one of God's huge generosity to us.

• 'Make no provision for the lusts of the flesh' (Rom 13:14). The context is about drunkenness and partying, but is equally true about censoring what you will look at. Job's righteousness included 'making a covenant with his eyes, not to look upon a young woman' (Job 31:1). The press, printed or online, has always majored on sexually titillating items, and as we practice purity we become more sensitive to avoid such.

• However like Paul, I find trying to keep the moral law simply seems to empower my sinfulness. Pornography filters seemed a good idea until I realised that they work by having an index of all the 'best' sites! And accountability partners are an evangelical version of the Confessional; a means of easing one's conscience, while not changing.

• What does work for me, is identifying lust before it has given birth to overt sin; and then bringing my inner sinfulness into the light of Christ's Presence, asking Him to cleanse me from all my inner unrighteousness through the power of His blood (1:9).

THE PRIDE OF LIFE

Where the lust of the flesh is a bodily and material thing, the lust of the eyes is a soul sin. But the pride of life is spiritual, and the root cause of all other failures to worship God alone. The Greek word used, is defined as 'an insolent and empty assurance, which trusts its own powers and resources, and shamelessly despises and violates divine laws' (Strong's Greek).

Pride was the cause of Satan's original downfall. Although he already had a place of great honour, he boasted "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High" (Isa 14:12-14). But that place at God's right hand was reserved for Jesus's ascension!

Pride and rebellion go hand in hand, and are integral to our fallen nature. Whereas humbling ourselves under God's almighty hand, accepting His providence, and learning obedience through what we suffer, are totally alien to the natural man.

This is the only time John ever uses this specific Greek word for life - bios. In the world of IT, it's an acronym for basic input / outout system. In Greek, it means our physical life, the life of our bodies not our souls or spirits.

'CHRISTIAN' FORMS OF WORLDLINESS

All the usual forms of worldliness can be seen amongst Christians, but leaders are especially prone to some more subtle manifestations:

• asceticism and food laws (Col 2:20-23, 1 Tim 4:1-4)

• using their authority to prey on vulnerable women (2 Tim 3:6)

• majoring on minor issues, causing divisions (Titus 3:8-11)

• getting rich by deceiving other believers (2 Pet 2:3)

• despising authority, in the spiritual realm (2 Pet 2:10,11)

When you see preachers who wear white suits, travel in chauffeur driven limos and private jets, and claim special revelations from angels, it surely shouldn't be difficult to recognise that they are of the world. And yet, millions follow them, seduced by their worldly values.

There are numerous Christian internet celebrities who assert their own superiority by rubbishing other teachers' ministries, under the pretext of prophetic warnings. And others who claim kudos for their Jewish roots or rabbinical training. Anyone who needs to big themselves up, does so because their teaching doesn't carry God-given authority!

Ordinary believers are no better! We often manifest

• worldly priorities as to how we use our time and money

• factionalism: having favourite teachers while denigrating others (1 Cor 3:3,4)

• arguments and quarreling between believers (Jas 4:1)

Perhaps the most universal form of worldliness in our present age, is self-help! The prideful idea that we can sanctify ourselves without needing to confess, and seeking the Holy Spirit's work in us, is the flesh asserting itself. 'The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing.' (Jn 6:63). But more of that later.

HOW CHRIST OVERCAME THE WORLD

Christ was tested not only in the temptation, but throughout His ministry. In Gethsemane His obedience to the Father's will was wrought through strong crying, and sweating great drops of blood. He was despised and rejected by men, oppressed and afflicted yet uncomplaining, mocked and flogged and humiliated yet praying for His torturers. He went through the agony of separation from God, on the Cross.

How was He able to overcome the world? Here are five keys:-

He knew His identity. Jesus said, "I always do what pleases My Father". (Allan Ellershaw testifies that it was the desire not to disappoint his earthly father, that enabled him to resist intense pressure to blaspheme, from a bully in his school.) Christ's Father had affirmed His Sonship at His baptism, but it was immediately challenged sarcastically by the Devil: "If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread."

He lived in continuous fellowship with His Father. When the crowd sought to make Him a military leader after the feeding of the five thousand, He retired up the mountain to pray. And the next day He confronted their wrong motivations so forcefully that the vast majority stopped following Him.

He was continuously focussed on what was happening in the heavenlies, continuously walking by faith not by sight. He only did what He saw the Father doing, and only spoke what He heard the Father speaking. It was 'for the joy set before Him', that He endured the Cross, despising its shame.

He was utterly surrendered to His Father's will. His initial commitment, "Lo, I come to do Thy will O God', was tested and tested until in Gethsemane He could say, "Nevertheless not My will, but Thy will be done".

He willingly learnt obedience through what He suffered. Obedience is only tested when we are asked to do something hard. Hebrews says He was made perfect through suffering (Heb 5:7-9): because He was 'tempted in all respects as we are, yet without sin', He became the perfect High Priest that we need (Heb 4:15). He never gave in to bitterness, but accepted that 'it was necessary for the Christ to suffer before entering into His kingdom' (Lk 24:26).

HOW WE TOO CAN OVERCOME THE WORLD

All these aspects of Christ's overcoming the world, are keys to our own overcoming:-

• Knowing our own new identity. We are called His children by our heavenly Father, even though we don't yet look anything like Christ (1 Jn 3:2). The reality is we are no longer children of the Devil, but children of God. We are no longer under his authority (Eph 2:1-3) but instead we're seated far above his realm, in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.  'God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of His beloved Son' (Col 1:13).

• Maintaining our fellowship with the Father and the Son. Abiding in Christ. Proactively keeping His commandments and loving one another.

• Setting our minds on heavenly realities, with the eyes of faith. Realising we live 'in the overlap' of heaven and earth, under the world's hatred and the enemy's attacks. Confessing the desires, not just the sinful acts. Believing that Jesus, as the Son of God and Mediator/Guarantor of the New Covenant (Heb 7:22), can and will win the victory for us, from within us.

• Humbling ourselves before God, recognising our own powerlessness and acknowledging His sovereignty over our lives. Surrendering our wills to His will.

Scripture always teaches us to submit to God before trying to resist the enemy. "You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, "the Spirit who dwells in us earns jealously"? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." (Jas 4:2-10)

• Seeing suffering as part of our fellowship with Christ. If Christ had to learn obedience through what He suffered, and He is our path-breaker and role model, we should 'count it all joy when we meet various trials, knowing that such trials produce godly character and make us 'perfect and complete, lacking nothing' (Jas 1:2-4). Paul actually boasted of his sufferings! (2 Cor 11:23-27). And he saw them as a heaven-sent means to prevent him becoming proud; and as marks of true apostleship (2 Cor 12:7-13).

Jesus calls us as His disciples to 'take up our cross and follow Him', if we wish to have eternal life. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (Jn 12:24,25). Paul says exactly the same: 'Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires' (Gal 5:24) 'I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me' (Gal 2:20).

FACING DOOM, SATAN MOBILISES ANTICHRISTS

Satan knows that Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and that his kingdom is being gradually overthrown. He can see the day looming, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. His response is a campaign of disinformation and discrediting, through a network of demonic ‘influencers’: false prophets driven by antiChrist spirits.

[N.B. Anti-christ can mean either against Christ, or false Christs (Mk 13:22-23, 2 Thess 2:3-4). Westcott defines it as 'one who, while assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Him.' ]

Such spirits can target individual Christians in their everyday lives, but to target the doctrine of Christ they must get into the churches. Latching onto the arrogance, envy and pride of fleshly church members, they introduce perverse heresies. If such divisive characters are recognised early enough, they leave and form sects, taking others with them. If they are not, they attack the church leadership, seeking to ‘strike the shepherd and scatter the sheep’. In worst case scenarios they stay under cover whilst arrogating more and more power; and can eventually destroy or pervert whole denominations.

We see various ways that antiChrist spirits operate within churches, in Galatians, and in Christ's letters to the seven churches. They can undermine the truth of Jesus's bodily crucifixion (Gal 3:1) and insist that His atonement is inadequate without also being circumcised, observing Jewish feasts (Gal 4:10), and keeping the Law of Moses. They can insert false prophets similar to Balaam, or prophetesses like Jezebel (Rev 2:14,20,21), who taught that sexual immorality associated with intermarriage with other faiths isn't a problem. (Balaam knew that it was impossible to curse the people under God's protection, but had realised that they could be persuaded to bring God's curse on themselves.). We have no hard information on the Nicolaitans, but one theory is that they practiced what we would call wife-swapping.

But the reason John calls them antiChrists, is because Satan's most basic attack is on the doctrine of the incarnation: that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (4:1-3). They deny the Father-Son relationship between the man Jesus, and Father God. They deny that Jesus is the Christ (2:22; 2 Jn 7). And in denying the Son, they prove that they do not have the Father either. Their claims to deeper truth, deeper knowledge of God, are exposed as sham.

If it was true in John's day that a plague of heresies about Christ's divinity indicated the nearness of Christ's return, what should we say about our own times? Islam says 'God has no sons'. Judaism says Jesus was not Messiah, not the Son of God. Unitarians believe that while Christ may have been a uniquely inspired prophet, perhaps even adopted as God's son, He is not a distinct divine person in the Godhead.

The defectors have the spirit of antichrist; but true believers have the spirit of the true Christ. They have an anointing, a chrism: they are as Christ in the world (1Jn 4:17). This is the gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor 10:12). Depending which Greek manuscript you read, verse twenty should probably read, “You all know the truth” rather than “You know all truth”. All of them know the truth about Christ and His incarnation.

HANDLING DIVISIONS WITHIN CHURCH

Whilst maintaining church unity is important, and Jesus teaches not to pull up the tares from amongst the wheat till the final harvest, the heretics’ voluntary departure is a good thing. It clarifies the error and cleanses the community. And when they go to other churches trying to spread their 'gospel', their cloak of orthodoxy has been removed.

Sometimes cliques form around individual leaders or teachers (1 Cor 3:3-7). Sometimes an individual will major on a particular view of a divisive doctrine, in order to create a following for themselves (Acts 20:30). Sometimes people will join a church, hoping to grow their own ministry from amongst its members - like a fungus grows off a tree. Often people who move from one church to another, will have done so because they were dissatisfied or felt unappreciated.

In writing to the Galatians about those pushing for Christians to come under Judaism through being circumcised, Paul identifies a group of 'works of the flesh’ as part of this problem: ‘contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies’ (Gal 5:20). In counselling Timothy about managing the Ephesus church, he tells him to forbid those who focus on ‘fables and endless genealogies’ from teaching, because they just cause disputes rather than edifying. The preacher should always aim to inculcate love which comes from a good heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith (1 Tim 1:3-7). Those who refuse to come under sound teaching do so out of pride and an obsession with disputes and arguments over words (1 Tim 6:3-5). He foresees the church’s present plague of worldly ‘super-apostles’ who are driven by greed, lust and pride.

How should the individual believer respond, to safeguard his fellowship with the Father?

Whilst fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ depends on trust, we mustn’t naively rely on the church being a safe place. Paul is clear that we should withdraw from fellowship with those who are divisive - but how do we distinguish those who genuinely have a prophetic message for the church, from those who are just driven by the flesh?

We must test all teaching by whether it acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: the touchstone of the incarnation and Christ’s dual nature. But discerning this often isn’t possible without an anointing from the Spirit, whom Jesus promised would lead us into all truth. We need to learn to listen for ‘the witness of the Spirit’, as we are listening to preaching.

We can gauge their ministry by its fruits. Does it build people up in love and unity, or does it cause divisions. But this takes time to discern.

We can look for godly humility, or worldly pride. Are they seeking to profit in any way from their ministry, either financially or reputationally? Are they looking for the church to support their ministry, or are they genuinely seeking to support the church’s ministry? Are they servant-hearted, like Christ? Paul commends Timothy saying, “I have no-one like him, who sincerely cares for others’ wellbeing” (Phil 2:20,21)

If we are in a position of pastoral responsibility for a church or a life group, like Moses we will often find ourselves confronted by those who feel they could do a better job than us! On every occasion but one, he humbled himself before the LORD, asking God to vindicate him and praying fervently for resolution. He was not filled with self-doubt about his own motives, having previously offered to sacrifice his own life to make atonement for Israel. But on the one occasion when he did react out of pique, it cost him enormously....