Sober Judgment

           For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:3)

When we read this passage, we tend to get stuck on the “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” part. One way we can respond is with a smug, “I don’t think more highly than I ought. I’m great.” Another is with an equal, but negative smugness. “I don’t think more highly than I ought. I’m a worm.”

But neither of those tends to involve sober judgment. Either we compare our highest with the lowest of the lowly and declare ourselves great, or we compare our lowest with the highest of the high and declare ourselves worms. Instead, we are supposed to use sober judgment.

And that’s when Paul hits us with the next phrase. We are to judge ourselves in accordance with the faith… Two possibilities come to mind. When during Jesus’ physical ministry on Earth, He often chided people about how little faith they had. If we had the faith of a mustard seed (a passage we’ll have to look at soon) how much we could do. So, one possibility is that when we judge ourselves, we should do so in terms of how much faith we have and how strong it is. In doing so, we should remember that He gave us the faith fir us to use. It is at least a big part of our greatness.

The other option is that we judge ourselves using faith in what God’s Word tells us of ourselves, even if we don’t see it. Perhaps especially if we don’t see it. It’s not about how great we are now, but about how great He will cause us to become. That is a tiny reflection of His greatness.