Are You Arrogant or Humble?

“What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” – 1 Corinthians 4:7

Are you an arrogant Christian?

 

Of course, our kneejerk response is to say, “I’m not an arrogant Christian! I’m a humble Christian!” But not so fast. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to reveal any trace of pride or arrogance that we’re still harboring in our hearts.

 

In 1 Corinthians 4:6, Paul writes: “Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another.”

 

Pastor John MacArthur writes: “God’s faithful servants are to receive proper honor and respect…. But they are to be honored only within such bounds of Scripture. Godly respect turns into ungodly exaltation when we exceed what is written…. As is often the case, the leaders were exalted [by the Corinthians] for the followers’ own sakes, not for the leaders’ sakes.”

You see, when we boast and brag about how amazing our pastor is or how much better our church is than another Christian’s church, we aren’t just lifting our pastor or our church on a pedestal; we’re really lifting OURSELVES on a pedestal. At the root of church disunity and division is selfish pride and arrogance.

 

To find out which type of Christian you are, Paul asks three tough questions in verse 7:

 

Question #1: “For who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special?” (Amplified Bible translation) Paul’s implied answer is, “No one! If you think you’re superior to other Christians, or if you think your pastor and your church are superior to every other Christian pastor and church, it’s just your pride-filled imagination.”

 

Question #2: “What do you have that you did not receive?” And Paul’s implied answer is … “Nothing! Everything you have, you have received. Everything you have is a gift from God.”

 

Question #3: “If you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” Everyone and everything in the Corinthians’ church was a gift from God. They didn’t EARN their church leaders. They didn’t DESERVE their salvation. It was all GOD’S doing, not their own. So, what was there for the Corinthian Christians to brag about? Nothing! 

 

So, what kind of Christian are you? If you have a tendency to lift up your pastor and/or church higher than God ever intended, you likely have more pride in your heart than you imagined. May each of us check our egos at the door and strive to be a humble servant whose only concern is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church, meeting Sundays at 8:45 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd in Victorville. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.