Key Passage: Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Romans 12:3 NLT
So, in my previous post, I described a general overview of community and discussed with y'all whether or not community is possible at all. (Hint: it is.)
Today, we shall determine what we need to look like as we enter a community. In other words, we must have a proper self-image to worship God best.
Today, we shall determine what we need to look like as we enter a community. In other words, we must have a proper self-image to worship God best.
In Romans 12:3, Paul exhorts us not to think we are better than we are. We're to be honest in our evaluations of ourselves, measuring ourselves by the faith God has given us.
Okay, so, what does that mean? Are we supposed to walk around with our heads bowed and eyes downcast? No. We're not to be prideful. There is a huge difference between pride and confidence in who we are in Christ.
There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
The vice I am talking about is Pride ore Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility... According to Christian teachers, the essential virtue, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchasity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Okay, so, what does that mean? Are we supposed to walk around with our heads bowed and eyes downcast? No. We're not to be prideful. There is a huge difference between pride and confidence in who we are in Christ.
There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
The vice I am talking about is Pride ore Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility... According to Christian teachers, the essential virtue, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchasity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
We are to be humble in our evaluation of ourselves. Diligently, we must flee from the sneaky trap of pride.
Humility does not equal low self esteem. In fact, I think a low self esteem is as dangerous to our walk with Christ as pride.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
~Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV
Blessed. Chosen. Holy. Blameless.
That doesn't sound like someone who should be walking around with their shoulders slumped to the ground. Still don't believe me? Check out the rest of the Ephesians passage and make a list of all of the truths it states about God and his people.
We are to be confident that God loves us, that he chooses us, and that he is making us holy. We aren't supposed to have self-confidence. We're supposed to have God-confidence, confidence in God and what he has done and continues to do.
Here's what that looks like:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
~Philippians 2:3-8
Jesus had everything, yet he abandoned that to save us. He humbled himself to die the most shameful kind of death- hanging naked on a tree.
Humility does not equal low self esteem. In fact, I think a low self esteem is as dangerous to our walk with Christ as pride.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
~Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV
Blessed. Chosen. Holy. Blameless.
That doesn't sound like someone who should be walking around with their shoulders slumped to the ground. Still don't believe me? Check out the rest of the Ephesians passage and make a list of all of the truths it states about God and his people.
We are to be confident that God loves us, that he chooses us, and that he is making us holy. We aren't supposed to have self-confidence. We're supposed to have God-confidence, confidence in God and what he has done and continues to do.
Here's what that looks like:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
~Philippians 2:3-8
Jesus had everything, yet he abandoned that to save us. He humbled himself to die the most shameful kind of death- hanging naked on a tree.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Yet his story doesn't end there.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~Philippians 2: 9-10
To Recap:
God-confidence is focusing on Jesus and what he has done to the point that we forget ourselves.
Philippians 2:5 states: "Have this mind among yourselves..." We are to have the same humble mindset Jesus had. We are to empty ourselves and become servants, and follow God's will for our lives.
After all, it is only when we forget ourselves and focus solely on Jesus that we can truly worship God.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~Philippians 2: 9-10
To Recap:
God-confidence is focusing on Jesus and what he has done to the point that we forget ourselves.
Philippians 2:5 states: "Have this mind among yourselves..." We are to have the same humble mindset Jesus had. We are to empty ourselves and become servants, and follow God's will for our lives.
After all, it is only when we forget ourselves and focus solely on Jesus that we can truly worship God.