Pride’s Damning Consequence: It Does Not Love!

In the previous post I wrote about my attitude toward the many Christians who differ from me. As believers, we also need to watch our attitudes toward non-Christians. Every one of us was once in that same category.

The relationship we now have with God was made possible by Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The relationship we now have with him results from our sins being forgiven by grace through faith. This compels us to love every human being as God loves them. Just as with brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to also be very interested in and very patient with everyone who does not yet share my confession that Jesus is Lord. Just because I think that someone is “dead wrong” does not mean that I wish that person dead. I can love and accept you even if I don’t approve of everything you say or do. (God does!)

If our ambition is to become more important and attract a following, we are blind to the lesson taught by the greatest person who has ever lived (other than Jesus), John the Baptist. What made John great was his clear understanding that it was all about Jesus, not himself. Even though the gospel is all about what God has done for you and me, it is not all about you, and it is not all about me. It is always all about our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why “he must increase, but you and I must decrease.”

The Bible makes it clear that one thing is more important than everything else: To love God and one another. The commitment to die for the one you love is the primary aspect of the love that Jesus teaches and God demonstrates. True love makes the life of the other person always more important than one’s own. The most damning consequence of my pride is that it keeps me from loving! “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” (1 Corinthians 13:4)

This is the fifth and last in a series of posts excerpted from my “personal conclusion” to the booklet, “30 Meditations for the Proud” February 2013. To receive a free electronic copy, email me at daniellesliepeterson@gmail.com.

Also available is a comprehensive study, “Everything (in the Bible) about John the Baptist.” This amazing story about an amazing man has the power to change your story! Are you and your ministry preparing the way for Jesus, always pointing to him? Can you get out of the way so that Jesus and others become more and more important while you and your work and ministry become less and less important? Do you encourage your followers to follow Jesus instead?

My Two Minds: Narrow and Simple, Broad and Wide Open

As I have learned about the differing interpretations and convictions that Christians have had for nearly 2000 years, I have become narrower.

I have grown so narrow that only one thing remains most important in my view of the Christian faith: Do you and I confess that Jesus is Lord? Do you and I trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you and I love God because he first loved us? For me, this is the crux of Christianity and the only thing that is most important.

There are, of course, many other things, and some of them are very important. But none of them are as important as Jesus Christ, and all of them are secondary to his death and resurrection. I believe that if we agree that Jesus is Lord, we have the only foundation we need to live together and discuss and debate all the other matters of Christian faith. If we above all love each other with the love God has shown us in the gospel, we should be very interested in and very patient with each other as we discover how all the other things on our “lists” compare.

The sheer variety of Christian teaching through the ages forces me to conclude that my small mind may not yet grasp all that God’s Spirit and Word have revealed. Not only have I become extremely narrow, but I have also become very broad, wide open to the possibility that I have something to learn from believers whose traditions and doctrines differ from my own. If I hold my convictions by faith with a clear conscience before God, I have to believe that many others do as well. Since God has not yet led everyone to agree to the same “list,” it appears to me that Jesus himself unifies us by his Spirit, not by our agreement about everything else.

It is a plain fact that Christians have differing convictions. (I expressed some of mine in the previous blog below.) But if you or I think that anything on our “list” trumps the love of God demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at the top of the list, we are missing the point made obvious by the cross and the empty tomb: Jesus is Lord! And if you or I think that our particular convictions or theology or church are the best or the most right of all those around, we are proud, deceived fools.

[This is the fourth in a series of posts excerpted from the “personal conclusion” to my booklet, “30 Meditations for the Proud” February 2013. To receive a free electronic copy, email me at daniellesliepeterson@gmail.com. I expressed similar thoughts in my March 27, 2014 post below, “I am MORE than an Evangelical.”]

How Big is God? How Little are We?

The many biblical references to pride and humility have led me to make the following observations about God and Scripture:

Regarding God:

—God is God. God is really big. I am not. Compared to God, I am really small. He loves me and gave himself for me, but that only emphasizes how far he and his ways are above me. Flat on my face before him seems to be a good position!

Regarding Scripture:

— “Read with a submissive attitude. Read with a readiness to surrender all you are—all your plans, opinions, possessions, positions. Study as intelligently as possible, with all available means, but never study merely to find the truth and especially not just to prove something. Subordinate your desire to find the truth to do it, to act it out!” (Dallas Willard)

—I happen to be convinced that the Bible is a very human book, with the same characteristics I see in myself and others, such as blind spots and cultural limitations. But I also believe that a very big, very real God breathes through every word of those forty-some very small, very real human authors. Thus their writing is God’s Word, trustworthy and authoritative. That is why I believe we should always approach it in the way Dallas Willard suggests.
 

Below are some bookmarks I use in my Bible to remind me of what's important.

 [This is the third in a series of posts excerpted from the “personal conclusion” to my booklet, “30 Meditations for the Proud” February 2013. To receive a free electronic copy, email me at daniellesliepeterson@gmail.com]

 

Pride and Humility: Some Observations about You and Others

The Bible has a lot to say about pride and humility. It has led me to make the following observations about you and others:

—Even when I have a lot to offer on some subject, there may be someone else in the room who knows something I don’t. I could learn from others if I shut up and listened instead doing all the talking. Every living person has value to God and something to offer me. I want to treat others with the same dignity and respect and consideration I would like to receive from them.

—I believe that the three statements made about myself in the previous post (below) are also true of everyone else. (You also don’t know it all, you have blind spots, you can be deceived, you still sin, etc.) But all that I have yet to learn, I must learn through others, including you. All the ways I have yet to grow, I will experience in community and relationship with you and others.

—When I listen to other speakers and read other authors, I need to be patient and sympathetic as well as discerning. My critical and corrective responses need to be spoken and written constructively and with kindness as I remember that I too will receive criticism and correction.

 [This is the second in a series of posts excerpted from the “personal conclusion” to my booklet, “30 Meditations for the Proud” February 2013. To receive a free electronic copy, email me at daniellesliepeterson@gmail.com]

Pride and Humility: Observations about Myself

Reflecting upon the many biblical references to pride and humility has led me to make the following observations about myself:

—I don’t know everything there is to know about anything. As I learn more, I only realize how much more remains to be learned that I do not yet know. I have more to learn about everything. And I simply do not have the capacity to think through everything from all angles.

—I have biases, prejudices and blind spots. I have preconceived notions, and I make numerous assumptions that remain largely unexamined. Some I have inherited, and others I seem to have developed entirely on my own. My perspective on everything is heavily influenced and severely limited by the way I have been raised, the culture in which I live, and the native language I speak and understand.

—I can be deceived. This is a sobering truth I know from experience. In the area of sexual morality, for instance, I have at times believed the lie of pornography and have even justified my self-indulgence. Thankfully, I also can be corrected by the Spirit of Truth, the Lord Jesus Christ.

—God has blessed me with gifts and abilities. I have walked with him since childhood, over 50 years, but I still sin. I can be a jerk. My heart is easily distracted with petty and vain thoughts. I continually need mercy, grace, and forgiveness from God and others.

[This is the first in a series of posts excerpted from the “personal conclusion” to my booklet, “30 Meditations for the Proud” February 2013. To receive a free electronic copy, please email me at daniellesliepeterson@gmail.com]