Thoughts on Arrogance

Most of us do not think of ourselves as being arrogant. We typically attribute arrogance to those who are prideful and ego-centric. We do not want to be seen as contemptuous of or condescending to others. Unkind, uncaring and insensitive persons are arrogant. Not us.

Yet, we may be more arrogant than we think. James said, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” Are our actions always consistent with our words. At Gateway this past Sunday, we all confessed in the decision time, “Jesus is everything.” Well, is he everything to us? Does he matter more to us than anyone or anything else in all the world?

All of us have gone through a moment in time when we publicly professed Jesus as Savior and Lord (I hope you all have done that). Now, many times, we do not consider the implications of such a commitment. Too often, we have “things” in our lives blocking our view of Jesus. We say we love Jesus, yet, we do not express our love for him as consistently as we should. Is that not arrogance?

Let’s consider, for a moment, how love is defined in Scripture. Biblically, love is not primarily an emotional thing. Love, first and foremost, is a commitment of oneself unalterably to someone else. When we declare our love for God or our love for a person, we are committing ourselves to an unchanging, unfailing loyalty to the one loved. We are declaring no one or no thing will come between us and the one we love.

Can you see how easy being arrogant is? If we say we love Jesus, yet, allow some other priority in our lives to interfere with our obedience to the Lord, we are treating Jesus with contempt. We are making him less important than he really is; we are being contemptuous of him. We do not have to put ourselves in a position of authority to obligate ourselves to greater judgment (see Jam. 3.1). In fact, as a believer, we are indeed “teachers” of others. We are to model Christian behavior to those in our world who are not believers. If we profess to be followers of Jesus, but do not follow him in our public and private behavior, are we not arrogant and calling down upon ourselves a greater judgment?

Being consistent in our lives is a major issue. We must have a high level of agreement in the way we live between what we have said we believe and how we act. I mentioned Sunday morning the Christian pollster George Barna. In his latest book, he argues people between 18-25 are more concerned with how they feel about an issue than the fundamental truth of the issue. I believe such an attitude is really inter-generational. No one age group has cornered the market on feeling versus fact. We are all motivated by our own desire for comfort.

For instance, Francis Schaeffer, a theologian of the 70s and 80s, said Ronald Reagan was elected President, not because most people were politically or socially conservative, but because Reagan offered them the greatest hope of personal peace and prosperity. Are those two motives not feeling-based? Are we not, as followers of Jesus, supposed to come down on the side of commitment and not convenience? Every account in the New Testament of Jesus calling someone to follow him meant inconvenience for that person if he chose to leave what he was doing and become a disciple.

Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Following Jesus does not always feel good, is not always convenient and many times will conflict with our list of personal priorities. Yet, when we confess Jesus as Lord, we are committing ourselves to go where he leads and do what he tells us to do. Anything less is arrogance. To ignore the commands of Jesus because of personal interests is to be contemptuous of the Lord and treat him as if he does not matter at all.

Does Jesus mean more than any one or anything else to us? Does he matter most? Beginning with Andrew and his brother Peter, those who have been summoned by Jesus to total discipleship have been faced always with the demand both to say and to do the truth.