“Love is patient, love is kind. Love envies not; love flaunts
not itself and is not puffed up.” I
Corinthians 13:4
The Christian Faith is all about relationships, that is why
love is such an indispensable factor in faith. Faith begins with a personal relationship
with God through Jesus Christ and then must be expressed in fellowship with
other Christ-followers.
That is also why attitudes like jealousy, boasting, and
arrogance are so negative – because they harm relationships. It is hard to love
someone who is jealous or boastful or arrogant. Some people are all three. If
you have ever tried to live with such a person you know what I’m talking about.
Today I am focusing on arrogance. The Greek word for
arrogance has the idea of “puffed up or
inflated like a balloon”. So an arrogant person is one who is “inflated
with self-importance” or you could say he is a wind bag.
My Mom has a saying about an arrogant person. She posits, “If
I could buy him for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is
worth I’d become a millionaire!”
I admit that’s a bit harsh, but an arrogant person suffers with
an overblown idea of his own importance and therefore struggles to appreciate
the value of others. An arrogant person also has a hard time realizing his need
for God or the love of God.
It was attitudes like jealousy, boastfulness and arrogance
that caused the Apostle Paul to write Chapter 13 of the Corinthian letter. The
church was being divided by competing selfish interests and out of control
egos. Rather than completing each other they were competing against each other.
A church in this condition cannot long survive.
Take the time to study the Chapters leading up to this
chapter and you will understand why Paul felt compelled to teach these
believers about “the more excellent way”. This most excellent way begins with
patience and kindness. It is impossible to be patient or kind with a heart
filled with jealousy, boasting and arrogance.
God loves the Church and designed it so it can only operate
in the power of His love. He designed it to operate with a diversity of gifts
that can only survive and thrive when united in His love through the Holy
Spirit. Individual egos must be consecrated to God’s will, cleansed by the
blood of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. Only then can believers
complete each other rather than compete. It is the only hope for the Corinthian
Church or for FredWes.
How is your attitude?
Do you have your ego under control?
Are you competing within your church or are you completing it?
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