More Important

turn to Romans chapter 12. We’ll
pick up where we left off three weeks ago in our continuing consideration
of this important chapter. As we’ve seen, Paul is speaking
more in practical terms here in this chapter than in previous
chapters. In light of the 11 chapters of
doctrinal instruction, he has called believers here to sacrificial
living. Beginning in verse 1, present
your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. And that will be seen
in our transformation By God’s grace, God will change us. God’s spirit, God’s word more
and more will mold us into the image of Christ. Sacrificial
living means not being conformed to the world, but being transformed
by God himself. And as we’ve already been reminded,
when individuals are changed by God’s grace, it has a wholesome
and beneficial effect on the church. The whole church reflects
this change, as Paul begins to detail in verse 3, and the church
becomes a church that thinks rightly, that is, with sound
judgment. It’s a church that functions
unitedly, functions as one interconnected and interdependent body of believers,
and it’s a church that serves enthusiastically. person exercising
their own God-given gifts. Well, in verse 9, Paul basically
takes and applies those principles to individual Christians. And
Paul’s remaining address in verses 9 through 21 can be broken up
into three main areas of focus. He addresses the believer’s demeanor
toward other believers in 9 through 13. We consider that section
three weeks ago. In verses 14 through 16, Paul
broadens his focus, not just believers and believers, but
he addresses the Christian’s demeanor toward other people
in general, our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers. We’ll
look at those verses this morning. And then finally, Paul addresses
our demeanor toward those who are contrary to us, those who
have wronged us in verses 17 through 21. And we will likely,
Lord willing, take up that study next Lord’s Day. Just to reset
the context, since it’s been several weeks, Paul knows that
as soon as people begin to interact and think and function and serve
together, as soon as those gears in the wheel begin to mesh, friction
and strife soon follows. Let’s just due to human nature
and the devil himself, And that’s what Paul addressed in verses
9 through 13, the demeanor as Christians toward other Christians.
And we’ve likely all seen this strife in God’s church, one of
God’s churches, where the peaceful fellowship of believers is destroyed
or harmed by enmity and bickering. We’ve all seen it. I hope we
haven’t all participated in it, but we’ve all surely seen it
or at least heard of it. Sadly, no church is immune to
that kind of infighting and division. Paul knew that the potential
for this was great in Rome because wherever Christ’s work begins
to flourish, The devil will not be far behind, and human nature
too easily is manipulated by him. Because we know the devil’s
tendency to stir up trouble within a church, and because we know
that human nature is susceptible to such promptings, and because
we know other churches that have experienced this kind of difficulty,
we have to be vigilant. We have to watch for even the
beginnings of division in our midst. This is Christ’s church. This is his body for which he
died. We cannot be naive to the potential
for problem, nor can we be indifferent. And so, in our consideration
of Paul’s initial application of there in verses 9 through
13, we humbly examined ourselves with Paul’s opening words. Let
love be without hypocrisy. Why would Paul have to say that
unless there was a grave tendency to fake it? We saw that that
opening line really functions as kind of a title for that whole
section, 9 through 13. I even proposed this characterization
of the title, Loving Unhypocritically. That’s what Paul lays down for
us in 9 through 13. Everything else in that section
moves to explain that one challenging sentence. Let love be without
hypocrisy. Our experience has shown that
the more time people have on their hands, if that time is
not invested in the humble service of others, in the development
and the exercise of genuine brotherly love, other things, ugly, destructive
things, move in and fill the void left by an absence of real
love. That’s just the way it happens.
Now, we don’t know the specifics about why Paul would bring up
the subject of hypocritical love to the Romans, but we quickly
acknowledge the tendency for such in our own hearts. Love is not just a kind face. It’s not just pleasant words. It’s a sincere, practical affection
for God’s people. And in the case of the Romans,
as with a lot of churches, it was much easier to pretend, to
go through the motions of brotherly love. It was easier to do that
than it was to practice the real thing. This is a potential problem for
all Christians. There’s always a temptation to
be insincere with regard to brotherly love, to pretend, to reduce it
to mere talk. No matter the situation or the
day and age in which believers live, they can always be tempted
to project the outward appearance of love, all the while holding
it at bay in their hearts. I told you then several weeks
ago that is nothing more than functional deceit. You’re just
going through the motions. The only source for genuine love
is the Holy Spirit and genuine love is the only kind of love
that the Holy Spirit produces. So as airing people, we tend
to let let the drafty air of hypocrisy taint and devour the
real. genuine article of brotherly
love. Because of that, we have to guard
our hearts against hypocrisy. We have to constantly plead that
the spirit would shape in us an unhypocritical, a genuine
love for our fellow believers. This is the reason that we look
so carefully at 9 through 13. And as always, in light of God’s
word, we examined our own hearts in view of this. And we were
led to call out to Christ for grace, for whatever grace was
lacking in this regard. But in addition to applying the
principle of sacrificial living to believers, when we’re dealing
with fellow believers, Paul also knew that he had to apply this
principle to demeanor toward others in general. We might like
the idea of dealing only with believers, but it just isn’t
realistic. And so Paul does this, he, as
I pointed out a moment ago in verses 14 through 16, he turns
his attention to our demeanor toward other people in general.
Would you follow along as I read our passage this morning? We’ll
just begin in verse 14 and take it down through verse 16. Bless those who persecute you,
bless and curse not. Rejoice with those who rejoice
and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one
another. Do not be haughty in mind, but
associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. If I could just kind of give
you a brief forecast over the format of this few verses, I
think there’s really three points that Paul’s making there. And
he’s talking about developing a heart that honors others. Rather than dismissing people,
rather than treating them as less than important, he’s talking
about honoring everyone. And he breaks it up into three
particular points. If we are going to be others-oriented,
as we’re called to be in this passage and many others, if we’re
going to be others-oriented, that mindset will include three
things. First of all, it will include
desiring good for others who have a contrasting opinion of
us. They don’t like us. They might
even hate us. And we’re called to desire good
for them, as we’ll see. Secondly, an others-oriented
mindset will be in the midst of cultivating empathy for those
with varying experiences. Somebody might be going through
something that we’ve never experienced, but rather than standing off
and aloof from them, we are to enter into their suffering or
even their joy. And then thirdly, if we’re going
to have an others-oriented mindset, we have to be developing a personal
humility for others with differing perspectives. That’s the outline. Let’s go back to verse 14, and
we’ll jump into the deep end. An others-oriented mindset begins with desiring good. for
others who have a contrasting opinion of us. Verse 14 is really
simple. Bless those who persecute you,
bless and curse not. And the first thing that I would
tell you about this particular point about those who persecute
you, this refers to receiving harsh treatment by others. I’ll
talk more about that in a moment. But I would tell you that this
is a mere introduction. Paul is going to speak much more. He’ll elaborate on these things
much more fully in verses 17 through 21, because there he’s
going to address how do we respond to those who are contrary to
us, to those who have decided that they are our enemies. There in those verses, Paul narrows
his focus. There, he’s zeroed in on our
demeanor toward those who are contrary. But here in verses
14 through 16, Paul’s focus is much broader. Here, he’s addressing
our demeanor toward people in general. So we can consider verse
14 as a kind of a forecast of what Paul will deal with in that
painful subject in 17 through 21. Now, the context here in
verses 14 through 16, we should note, it follows immediately
on Paul’s address regarding our demeanor toward fellow believers. But even if we love our fellow
believers perfectly, we’re not even close to being finished.
There he’s telling us to, telling believers of the expectation
of showing love to fellow Christians. But even if we excel in that,
our love cannot be exhausted because here he urges that we
are to show the same Christ-like love even to our enemies. The initial question we have
to ponder is what does the word persecute mean? To what does
persecution refer? We recently came across this
word, we saw it back in verse 13 of this very chapter, and
there it was just translated as practicing, practicing hospitality,
literally pursuing hospitality, and the basic meaning of the
word is pursue. And it can point blandly to following
someone without hostile intention, but it does have a darker side,
this word, And the fullest and most regular use of the word
refers to that harsh and hateful treatment of someone simply because
of what he or she believes. Persecution, as we call it. For the Christian, persecution
is that harsh treatment that we receive and endure because
of our faith in Jesus Christ. typically in the New Testament,
especially in the New Testament, persecution points to suffering
that is inflicted for the sake of righteousness, simply holding
to biblical truth. We know well that the word, pardon
me, we know well that the world hated and still hates Christ
and everything about him. his condemnation of sin, his
demand for holiness of life. And so for his disciples, even
the proclamation of the gospel stirs the world’s hatred. And we just happen to be in the
way. Their hatred is ultimately directed toward Christ. But we’re
a convenient target so often. So the world’s hatred for the
things of God that most often we don’t even have to say a word.
Simply holding to a biblical principle, obeying that which
is good and right, walking in righteousness. Those things condemn
the world and the world hates us in response. And this is an
important thing to remember about the true nature of persecution.
If you see lights on the vehicle behind you, flashing at you,
red and blue, you’re probably not being pulled over to get
an award for your driving. That is not persecution. Persecution is in response to
good behavior, not bad. If we do wrong, we justly deserve
ill treatment. Ill treatment can only be deemed
persecution when it is inflicted out of malice for that which
is good and right, vindictive and malicious treatment toward
those who are doing right. The apostle Peter in his first
epistle straightforwardly clarifies what is and what is not persecution. Would you just turn there for
a moment? We have a few minutes. 1 Peter chapter 3, keep your
finger there in Romans 12, we’ll be back in a moment. But I love this description because
it takes away this faulty definition of persecution where we’re really
suffering for our obnoxiousness or for some sin. That’s not persecution. Persecution is suffering for
the sake of righteousness. As Peter begins to lay out, look
down, if you would, at verse 13. And who is there to harm
you if you prove zealous for what is good? What do you have
to fear? If you’re doing what is good
and right and righteous, God is with you. But even if you
should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed
and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a
defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the
hope that is in you. Yet with gentleness and reverence,
And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you
are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ
may be put to shame. For it is better, if God should
will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than
for doing what is wrong. Persecution does not follow on
the heels of your wrongdoing. That’s not persecution. That’s
a just punishment. Persecution follows on the heels
of righteousness. Back, if you would, to Romans
12. The reality is is that this experience
of persecution is to be expected in some measure. Paul told young
Timothy in some of his very final words in 2 Timothy, indeed, all
who desire to live godly in Christ will be persecuted. And if you
haven’t felt the heat of the world, perhaps you still have
growth and grace. Perhaps people can’t see your
righteousness yet. The Roman church was already
feeling this, the heat of this persecution to some degree by
the Roman government. And there was about to, the heat
of persecution was about to get much worse. with Emperor Nero. The persecution here about which
Paul speaks, it could take the form of criticism. It could take
the form of cruel treatment by someone. It could take the form
of a job loss or a denial of a promotion. It could take the
form of slander, imprisonment, even ultimately martyrdom. It
takes a myriad of different forms in this world, but it has one
cause. That one cause is our relationship
to Jesus, our Savior. Well, then Paul’s point here
is that when we meet with genuine persecution, we are to respond
appropriately. And Paul narrows it down. There
are really only two possible responses to persecution, blessing
or cursing. Look again, please, at verse
16. We are to bless those who persecute us. Now, that’s a bitter
pill to swallow, isn’t it? If someone is really being nasty
to you, it is a hard thing. It is something that only a Christian
can accomplish. It is a hard thing to do kindness
in return. We are to bless those who treat
us harshly and not to curse them. Let’s look at this improper response
first, that of cursing. Cursing here is not the same
thing as swearing, according to the use of that word in our
modern vernacular. Here it points specifically to
invoking evil upon another, to calling down judgment upon them.
Most likely, one who is against us, threatening us, or one who
has already done harm to us, we wish him evil. That’s cursing. One who curses his detractor
or his opponent, he levies the harshest kind of insults and
invectives against him. Lord, strike him dead, right? Even if we don’t verbalize it
with our lips, we think it in our hearts. This man’s words
are venomous. He verbally wishes and somehow
even prays for the worst kind of evil to befall the one who
has troubled him. This cursing then is the most
unholy kind of anger, an ungodly stewing in unforgiveness. And
the frightening thing is, what is more common than responding
in kind to harsh treatment? When James speaks of this practice,
it’s almost matter of fact. It’s so common that everybody
would just have been nodding their heads as he preached it. Speaking of the tongue, James
says, with our tongue we bless our Lord and Father and with
it we curse men. Everybody would say yea and amen. And lest we forget, James’ argument
against such behavior is rooted in God’s creation. He says, with
our tongue we curse men who have been made in the likeness of
God. Yet even the Lord’s earthly disciples
were not above this unseemly behavior, calling down a curse
on their enemies. When one, you remember this,
when one Samaritan village refused to give the disciples groceries,
the disciples said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to
come down from heaven and to consume them? That’s calling
a curse on your enemy. And Jesus made it clear there,
as Paul does here, that such an attitude is utterly unchristlike. When others wrong us, We exceed
their sin when we call down judgment upon them, when we curse them.
We’ve gone beyond their own sin. And so Paul says here that not
only are we not to curse them when they do wrong to us, we
are to positively bless them. This word, translated here as
bless, you know, it can have a variety of references in Scripture. God blesses us by pouring out
His goodness and grace upon us. If we bless God, we are effectively
praising Him. But when we bless others, including
the very ones who have done us evil, We are seeking, we are
asking God’s blessings and benefits to be stowed upon them. It is
a stark contrast. Instead of calling down the fire
from heaven upon our enemies, we are to call down the sweet
bounties of God that we too enjoy. And yet these words, these words
are the very words of Christ. Luke 6, 28, bless those who curse
you, pray for those who mistreat you. You see, it’s one thing
to bite your lip, to grit your teeth, to bear up under the foul
treatment of others without retaliation in kind. But it’s quite another. to bow
your knees before your heavenly father and to plead for God’s
blessings to be bestowed upon those same enemies. And only
such a response, a response like that can only begin in a heart
that has been redeemed. Only a Christian can really truly
do this. Only a genuine Christian can
sincerely ask God to do kindness to his enemy. The elusive demeanor,
so difficult even for the most seasoned of God’s saints, is
the very attitude that Jesus urged of his followers. If you
would, would you turn to Matthew chapter five? We’ll dart around
a little bit through our Bible today. Matthew chapter five, and you’re
familiar with this verse, And scroll down to verse 43,
you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy. That was kind of the mindset
of the Jewish culture, that it was OK if a man had declared
himself as your avowed enemy, that it was OK to hate him in
return. Jesus corrects that sinful thinking,
verse 44, but I say to you, love your enemies. and pray for those
who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who
is in heaven. For he causes the sun to rise
on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love
you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors
do the same? Do you grasp what he’s saying
here? God sends the rain. God causes the sun to rise on
both the evil and the unrighteous. And so it must necessarily be
a godly quality to affirm God’s doing so in prayer. Lord, would
you bless this individual? Jesus says, that it is a God-like
quality to seek good for those who seek us evil. Think of Jesus’
own example as he hung dying upon that cross. Father, forgive
them for they do not know what they’re doing. There couldn’t
have been a finer prayer. Truly, if Christ died for us
while we were yet sinners, then He does have the divine right
to expect of us that we will wish good even upon our fiercest
enemies. Back, if you would, to Romans
12. We are called As Scripture lays
out everywhere, we are called to bless our enemies. And this
is a principle that echoes throughout the pages of Scripture. There
are too many here to take you to each one. Jot these down,
though, if you think of it. Exodus 23, verse 4. If you meet
your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely
return it to him. That stands in the face of what
we might think. You know, it’s finders keepers,
right? He was on the road, he didn’t have a rope around his
neck. Verse five, if you see the donkey
of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain
from leaving it to him. He says, go unpack that poor
beast and relieve his burden. You shall surely release it with
him. You don’t hold anything back. You take the donkey and
all of its belongings back to its rightful owner, even if he
is your enemy. Proverbs 24, 17, write that one
down. Do not rejoice when your enemy
falls. Now, what is more common than
that? You know, you’re gonna get what’s coming, and when it
comes, we secretly have a little worship service of our own, right?
Na, na, na, na, na, na. And on it goes. Do not let your
heart be glad when he stumbles. That’s an unchrist-like attitude. Proverbs 25, if your enemy is
hungry, give him food to eat. And if he’s thirsty, give him
water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head.”
That’s not punishment. Job 31, 29, Job muses before
the Lord, have I rejoiced at the extinction of my enemy? God, check my heart. Have I ever
been happy when my enemy, even my enemy, dies? Or have I exulted
when evil befell him? This quality is refined and undergirded
in the New Testament. Paul sets, he sets forth the
appropriate response as believers to the harsh treatment of others.
1 Corinthians 4.12, just listen to this one. 1 Corinthians 4.12
and 13, when we are reviled, we bless. When somebody says
something nasty about you, Bless them in return. Pray for God’s
goodness and bounties upon them. When we are slandered, we try
to conciliate. Can we set the record straight?
Could we just sit down and talk? And Peter says likewise that
we are not to return evil for evil or insult for insult, but
we are to give a blessing instead. 1 Peter 3.9. You see, the surest
way to do this is to pray for them. That buries the hatchet,
at least on your part, to ask God for His blessing upon even
your most avowed enemies. Pray for them. Pray God’s blessing
upon them. But that’s only the first. other-oriented
element of our mindset, desiring good for others with a contrasting
opinion of us. The second is in verse 15 and
16, cultivating empathy for others with varying experiences. You’ve heard the phrase birds
of a feather. We like people that look like us, talk like
us, think like us. The second element of our behavior
that we find, if the Lord is developing in us an others-oriented
mindset, we will be cultivating an empathy for others who are
different. They have different experiences
than us. Would you just glance down at verse 15? Rejoice with
those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And it almost
goes without saying here that weeping with those who weep is
much easier than rejoicing with those who rejoice. Let’s just
be honest. Because we know the pains of life so well. Empathy
is just there. To have sympathy for another’s
suffering comes much more naturally to us than rejoicing. Because Because of that, I want
to consider the easier one first, weeping with those who weep.
There’s a line from an old poem, laugh and the world laughs with
you, weep and you weep alone. It’s a sad but true thought that
the heart alone knows its own bitterness. Few will ever truly be able to know the
depths of our own personal griefs. They can come and sympathize
with us. They can pray with us. I’ve learned
as a pastor in times of grief, words are cheap. Just be there. Trials come, heartache soon follows. And for much of that dark journey,
except for the comfort of the Lord, we will be very much alone. Only the truest Christian friend
will stand with us, but even they can’t fully enter into our
grief. And so Paul urges a tender sympathy
here by Christians. I believe that here in verse
15, the potential for vindictiveness is gone. He’s not talking about
your enemy anymore. He’s talking about perhaps your
neighbor, your coworker, your friend. Come alongside them. Let your heart ache with them
in their pain. It’s indifference that Paul is
addressing here, not vindictiveness. We have a tendency to get totally
caught up in our own lives, our own trials, our own hurts, so much so that we are like so
many pinballs rolling around the board of life, occasionally
bumping into one another. That’s not Christianity. And
that’s not the church. We’re not supposed to live like
that. We’re called to enter into to have a living, interactive,
genuine fellowship with one another. And among other things, our fellow
believers griefs are our griefs. They’re supposed to be. We are
to weep with those who weep. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul
said it so plainly to his church there, if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it. Your pain is our pain. After
all, though the body of Christ is made up of different parts,
we are one body. I want you to go home and try
this this afternoon. Grab something big, heavy. and
drop it on your toe. And see if your entire body does
not react to that pain. No, don’t try that at home. But likewise in the church, Christian
sympathy urges that we have a genuine sympathy for our brother and
sister’s trials and distresses and pain. We can never fully
take it away, but we can come alongside, we can pray. We can’t
hug them and love them. Nothing builds the true unity
of the church more surely than commonality of suffering. And
as I’ve already noted, between weeping with those who weep and
rejoicing with those who rejoice, it’s easier, the easier of the
two is tears of compassion for a friend that is hurting. Almost
any believer would find it difficult not to fellowship in the pain
of a dear friend. Unfortunately, it’s not so with
rejoicing. To actually enter into the joy of a fellow believer
is a very rare thing. Only the truest of our Christian
friends will truly rejoice in his innermost for our joys. And almost instinctively, the
one who rejoices knows this. We know that we’re happy. We
know that our truest friend will be happy with us, but we don’t
expect it of everybody. Nor do we wait, hopefully, that
everyone is going to come alongside us and rejoice equally with us. We exult in the blessing that
we have received and often quite alone. The pitfall is that with rejoicing,
that rejoicing is often surrounded on all sides by a temptation
to envy, isn’t it? We see somebody enjoy some blessing
of the Lord, and we begin to inwardly gnash our teeth. Why
not me? Why him? To question the propriety
and the blessing that they enjoy, as if God himself has misdirected
this blessing? And that inhibits the sharing
and the joy. We can’t do it. Paul says we should. You see,
in the verse that I cited a moment ago in reference to weeping,
it has another side to it. 1 Corinthians 12, 26. If one member suffers, all the
members suffer with it. But also, if one member is honored,
all the members rejoice with it. The body of Christ, a blessing
bestowed on one, should be a blessing bestowed on the entire body of
Christ, so that we ought to rejoice as if we personally were the
recipient. Paul drives this point home in
verse 16. It’s not a new and different
point here. In fact, literally, he just inserts this point. It’s a participle here. Be of
the same mind toward one another. Think the same thing. It’s a
familiar echo of the two previous lines, literally the same into
one another thinking, whether joy or sorrow. And he calls us
here in verse 16 to be like-minded. This is just the sentimental
expression of the golden rule, isn’t it? Treat the other person
as you wish to be treated. Don’t be a snob. Don’t act like
you’re better or more important than everyone else. Don’t stand
aloof from others, especially if they’re hurting. Contempt for the lowly is the
very thing that Paul is confronting here. If you’re hurting or exuberant,
you want somebody to come alongside and rejoice with you or weep
with you. It’s a natural desire. the like-mindedness that Paul
is talking about here really is the foundation of peace in
the church. This is not an exhortation to
a rigid doctrinal like-mindedness, but again, it’s the empathy insisted
upon in verse 15 to care for one another. And he carefully
unpacks and describes this like mindedness in those two final
lines of verse 16, two middle lines rather. Do not be haughty
in mind, but associate with the lowly. Haughtiness is a word
that is much faded from our modern vocabulary. It refers to an arrogance
of mind. It’s an outward expression of
pride, really. Earlier in this same epistle,
Romans, it’s translated as conceited. Don’t be conceited. Don’t be
haughty. It’s this kind of arrogance that
almost always leads to a presumptuousness, to an attitude of entitlement
that is destructive to the fellowship. This is the individual that really
believes he’s better than everyone else around him. And so he stands
off and aloof from others, especially those who are lowly or troubled.
No wonder Paul immediately provides the antidote to this, associate
with the lowly, literally the humble. Far from arrogantly positioning
himself above everyone around him, the humble child of God
thinks themselves to be on the same level. Not even good enough
for the lowliest saint in the church. The humble, the lowly,
the meek, the downtrodden. This shouldn’t be hard for a
Christian. This shouldn’t be hard for a
child of God. The suggestion here is that we
not fight against our interaction. We are to enter into it. It shouldn’t
be hard for us to come alongside the downtrodden. We should make ourselves at home
among all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should
come alongside of them and pray for them. We should see how God
wants us to respond to their trial or need. Let me ask you, can you come
alongside someone when they’re hurting? Some people have a very
difficult time doing that. Pray for God’s grace. Can you
truly be happy? I mean really happy, thrilled
as if it was happening to you when someone experiences some
great blessing from God? Are you above and aloof from
others who are either in calamity or grief or joy in their happy
circumstances? Are you distant, isolated from
that, indifferent even? God is molding and shaping us,
developing in us hearts that are supposed to reflect our Savior. And he’s working in us, not only
a desire for good for others who hate us, cultivating empathy
for others with varying experiences, but third and finally, Developing
a personal humility for others with differing perspectives.
This is a complicated one. It’s a third point, separate
and independent from the two previous. Paul’s third point
here is not unrelated to the two. Personal humility is still
very much related to others’ oriented mindset. Just as seeking
God’s blessing on those who hate us, or cultivating empathy for
those with varying experiences, this third element is crucial. What the apostle points to here
is self-conceit. An attitude of mind and heart
that thinks and feels and carries oneself as if they are the ultimate
source of knowledge and wisdom. One capable shepherd characterized
it with a heart searching accuracy. Listen. No species of pride is
more insidious or more injurious to the pride than the pride of
intellect. What we know. or a fancy that
is imaginary superiority to those around us, which leads to a contempt
of their opinions and a confident reliance upon ourselves. We don’t
need anybody. We don’t want anybody. We are
our own guides. Such a person by their attitude
actually exhibits a blinded ignorance to their own pride. This concern
is aptly addressed in Proverbs 3, 7. Just listen. Do not be wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This boldness, this arrogance
really is a sure indication of self-delusion. As it says elsewhere in the Proverbs,
let another praise you and not your own mouth. Don’t set yourself
up. Don’t position yourself as supremely knowledgeable and wise. One who does that by personal
assessment is essentially, he betrays the opposite, doesn’t
he? And he’s rarely seen as such
by others. Wise, he or she in reality is
an arrogant fool. As godly commentator Charles
Hodge put it, no species of pride is more insidious. This is the person who holds
no court, seeks no counsel but his own, and has himself all
the answers to life’s questions. In their pride, they eschew any
counsel. They put themselves forth as
the source of all wisdom. And such an attitude is not an
indication of humility wrought in the heart of a believer
by the Holy Spirit. The humble child of God ought
to always be cultivating a heart to learn, ever open to the examination
of the Spirit of God, regardless of what human agent
God employs. Well, the Christian man or woman
needs to battle against such an attitude and cry out for the
Spirit of God to address this alarming malady, we need the
grace of humility. We need the Spirit of Christ,
meek and lowly. We need God to develop in us
a personal humility toward those with differing perspectives than
us. Philippians 3 says it this way
so simply, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, But with humility
of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.
By the way that you treat others, could it really be said that
you believe they are more important than you are? Desiring good for others with
a contrasting opinion of us, that’s dealing with others in
the midst of conflict. cultivating empathy that’s dealing
with others in the midst of life’s circumstances, and developing
a personal humility that’s dealing with others as we navigate life
itself. What a beautiful passage. Let’s
consider our own hearts before the Lord.