Friday, June 26, 2015

June 27, 2015

“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?