First lets define what arrogance actually is. Webster defines it as “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions”. When I read this, I was surprised. Not that I didn’t know what it was but that I did not know that it was more that just feeling superior to others. It’s also showing it in an overbearing manner towards other.
Lets look at this as Christians. First what does God say about arrogance. Well, there are quite a few verses about it and none of them favor it. There a a ton of Old Testament verses but lets go to the New Testament because that’s what we go by today. Romans 12:16 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. James 4:16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. I love 1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant. If we are to love one another then this is what love is, not arrogant. This one really gets me. Romans 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. This verse goes on to say that these acts are worthy of death. How much more plain can God be. He doesn’t like arrogance.
One of the thing I see a lot is Christians, especially those in the church of Christ, acting as if they are the chosen ones. Like they are the only ones that matter and everyone else if lower than them simply because they chose to put on Christ in baptism. In a manner of speaking this is true to a point. However, we should not act like it. We are to be humble, not arrogant about it. I see posts on social media all the time about the “big sins” and how those people are going to hell. The things is, we are all sinners and God loves us all. We should love everyone as well. Sin is sin as well. James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. It doesn’t matter what sin we commit we are guilty of breaking the ENTIRE law. We can’t say that “They are divorced for the wrong reasons so they are worse than me because I have stayed married for 20 plus years”. What if you have treated your wife horribly and not loved her the way that God had intended us to love our wives? You are just as guilty as the above couple. You also can’t say that the act of homosexuality makes someone lower that you just because you are with the opposite sex. You may have commuted fornication by having premarital sex. This, according to James 2:10 you are just as guilty of missing the mark as the other person.
We as Christians have to stop acting like we are better because we attend services and check that box. Just because we grace that door every time it’s open makes us no better that someone that has never entered a place of worship if all we do is go and sit then leave and the word of God is not uttered from our moth until the next service time. We have to treat others, especially fellow brethren, with love and respect. We are all imperfect. it doesn’t matter how much money we make or how we manage it. What car we drive or how big of a house we live in. Nor the clothes we wear. These are all petty things.
Romans 14 1-19
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written;“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
Take a look at that! This is telling us to stop putting a stumbling block in front of others by arguing over petty things. We judge people for the dumbest things! “Oh they don’t have enough money to support their family. They have to keep going to the elders for help.” But your company has several open positions , or you might have more money than they need to start over and you hold it back. If you have the means then you should be doing it. Trust me God isn’t going to let you through the pearly gates if you slip him a $100 bill. Acts 10:34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.
Stop looking down on others for their sins and take a look in the mirror! We are al guilty of something and the only way we are going to get to heaven is together. No one is better than anyone else. We all have to help each other. That’s the whole point of the church that was bought and paid for by the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.