T H E O P H I L U S

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

The word arrogance according to the Oxford English Dictionary is “having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities.” As Christians we often find ourselves more arrogant than humble. As hard edged as this statement is, we are all guilty of that. We have often made our achievements a sign of righteousness, and the size of our churches as evidence of God moving, thus saying that smaller congregations do not have God. We have labeled someone who has not received Christ a heathen or a pagan, and have often looked at them with pity. But in reality, before we had Jesus in our lives we were in the same position. Here is the real truth – we ought to be humble because our salvation and our existence did not begin with me, but it began with God. In fact, nothing we have invested into the kingdom brings us salvation either. It is Grace in the blood of Jesus that paid the price for us to live.

In a day and age where we are told to do what ever we want to do, be what ever we want to be, feel what we feel, as any human being would discover, that is complete misguidance. Self-centeredness, arrogance, and insecurity regardless of culture or religion is destructive and is the cause of our human pain.

As believers and followers of Christ then, and this very much includes myself – we must begin with Christ, and in Christ alone so that we are reminded that it is not by my power that I am saved, and not by my might that I live the Christian journey each day. It begins with what Christ has done for us, and the Holy Spirit that enables us. Thus if we have anything to boast about ourselves, or if we have nothing to boast about, boast of what the Lord has done instead. And may that bring you peace, and compel you to live with love and compassion way beyond yourself today.

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you’re looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you. – C.S. Lewis