The Dangers Of Overprotection

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 are famous Bible verses that speak much about the characteristics of the God-kind of love. In verse 8, I saw it’s written that “Love always protects.” However, upon meditating on it, I realized that love doesn’t overprotect. So what’s the difference?

Overprotection occurs when someone or something gets excessively guarded by another to the extent that it comes to be a bondage to bear.

In the Bible, Jesus has always taught us about being faithful with whatever is entrusted to us to handle. Faithfulness correlates with protection and wise usage of resources. However, overprotection can occur, and sometimes, without our knowledge.

In this article, I’m using two Bible stories, one in the Old Testament and one parable from Jesus, to teach the dangers of overprotection.

Jacob and Benjamin

Jacob had 12 sons and a daughter (Genesis 30:19-21, 35:23-26). Among all the women he had children with, Rachel was the one he loved the most. Rachel had only two children with Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin. Unfortunate things happened in the family as the children grew, and Jacob was lied to believe Joseph was dead. He mourned Joseph’s loss for days. However, in addition to his sorrow, I believe Jacob made a personal vow to protect Benjamin, Joseph’s only biological brother from suffering what his elder brother experienced.

There was no doubt a loving father like Jacob could do this, seeing he has lost one son already. And even though it’s never stated plainly in the Bible, Jacob’s protection of Benjamin translated into overprotection without realizing it. The question is, how did it happen? Honestly, I don’t know. Nonetheless, I know how it got expressed.

During a severe famine in Canaan, Jacob sent all his sons (except Benjamin) to Egypt to buy food for the family (Genesis 42:1-4). At that time, Joseph was Egypt’s prime minister.

When the ten sons of Jacob got there, Joseph recognized them the moment he saw them, even though they didn’t (Genesis 42:7-8). He pretended to be a stranger to them. Nonetheless, Joseph treated them with wisdom. Eventually, he detained Simeon, forcing them to return with Benjamin to Egypt.

So before embarking on their second journey to buy food, these brothers (9 as of now) told Jacob, their father, about their need to go with Benjamin. Jacob hesitated at this idea.

First, Reuben gave him a guarantee for Benjamin’s safety in exchange for the death of his two sons (Genesis 42:37-38). He still won’t let Benjamin go. Later, Judah tried hard to convince him to release the boy, and this time he listened.

Now, here’s the point: if Jacob held on to his overprotective actions, the whole family would have perished out of hunger. Overprotection can make you think your idea is right without seeing its side effects.

The Unfaithful Servant

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus narrated a parable about three servants whose master entrusted each with bags of gold according to their capacity (Matthew 25:15b). Two of them used what they had to work and earned profit from it. However, the remaining servant hid his in the ground. He loved his master and wanted to be faithful to him. He also knew his master was a hard man (Matthew 25:24). Nevertheless, he was ignorant that his master didn’t like lazy servants.

When the master came later to vet what they had done with their bags of gold, this servant was called “lazy.” His fear of losing the bag of gold made him overprotect it. Eventually, the master took his bag of gold away and given to the other servant who had ten bags of gold.

What can we learn from these two Bible events?

Some lessons to learn

1. God never gives you something just for your benefit, but for you to work with it and see it multiply.

As a believer, you must know that you’re a steward of God’s possessions entrusted to you, not the owner. So don’t let your fear of God hinder you from wisely using what He gives you for kingdom benefits. If you mishandle kingdom resources, He can replace you with another person to handle it, just like how the master gave the lazy servant’s bag of gold to another servant.

You’re a steward of God’s possessions entrusted to you, not the owner

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2. Allow the opinions of people to broaden your thinking.

You’re not the only person God has blessed with ideas to manage kingdom resources. Others have this gift also. God gave Jacob 12 sons to be assets for the tribes of Israel. However, his overprotective actions could have made the whole family die out of hunger during the famine. Protect what God gives you, but don’t love it too much to refuse to give it out for the benefit of many. I believe this is applicable to how we spend money.

The Father loved Jesus, but He wasn’t overprotective of Him. He gave Him out to be the propitiation of the sins of all. Beloved, I hope this article has taught you that there are several dangers of overprotection. If you’ve noticed it’s developing in any area of your life, especially in terms of finances, rectify it by the strength of Christ in you. I pray God grants you the boldness and wisdom to use kingdom resources well.

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