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.
Comments
Post a Comment