Some c
ommon names that represent Christians are “chosen ones,” “God’s people,” “royal priesthood,” “the chosen people,” “the righteous,” “the elect,” while the non-Christians are “infidels,” “heathen,” “unbelievers,” or “pagan” people. Is it any wonder that one of the biggest points of hatred against Christianity is its perceived arrogance?
Although many believers make special effort to clothe their faith in humility, it nevertheless is a sad truth that there are those who do seem to walk about with a posture of “I’m saved; therefore, I’m better than you.” This problem is not at all new within God’s church. It has been around as long as Satan has had an opportunity to tempt those prone to such a weakness.
Third John is a short epistle of only 14 verses, yet the apostle John spends an entire paragraph exposing the sin of Diotrephes, one who professed to be a disciple. John writes: “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church” (verses 9 and 10). Here is an example of a selfish and egotistical church leader. Not only wouldn’t he welcome other church workers into his home, but he rejected those who were his fellow brothers. The KJV calls it an attitude of “preeminence” or, simply put, arrogance.
It is very interesting that John was the one to point this out, for in his younger years, he too suffered from the very same shortcoming. There is only one quotation of John’s spoken words recorded in Scripture. This is it: “‘Teacher,’ said John, ‘we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us’” (Mark 9:38). John also suffered from elitism. Just because another individual, who was not up to John’s standards, was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, John felt it necessary to stop the man. Arrogant and egotistical attitudes were a problem then, and they are still a problem today. No wonder Paul needed to remind the Romans, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (12:3). Unfortunately, that arrogance lies not only among the laity but among many of today’s ministers and church leaders as well.
Jesus addressed this issue many times. He said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5.) He said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (23:12.) He said, “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves” (Luke 22:26.)
Fortunately, there are bright spots that appear in the Bible as well. These are the people we should emulate. David admittedly asked, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” (1 Chronicles 17:16). John the Baptist asked, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14). The centurion likewise was too humiliated to think that Jesus would come into his house to heal his servant, and the Canaanite woman was willing to eat the crumbs that fell from her Master’s table. Such humble attitudes are indeed pleasing to the Lord. Christ, the greatest Man on earth, showed the lowest humility for us.
Someone once said that there is no such thing as an arrogant Christian. Perhaps there is truth in those words, for God has repeatedly told us, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We would do well to keep that in mind the next time we are tempted to look down on anyone who seems to be different from us and who is in need of our help, not our arrogance.
Lord, teach me how to live in true humility. Amen.
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