Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian
Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“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.”
“Do not be proud, but be
willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
Romans 12:3, 16b
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Along with Romans 8,
this chapter, chapter 12, is one of the most important in this letter as it
touches on key components of the Christian life.
Over the past two days,
we have looked at two critical actions a person needs to take in order to start
embodying the ways of Jesus, ways central to being a Christian.
First, one needs to
offer themselves up to God as a living sacrifice, freely surrendering themselves
to the will of the Father. The scriptures tell us that this is our “true and
proper worship”, the appropriate way to honor our Lord.
The second thing that’s
needed once one fully submits themselves to God and turns away from the world’s
ways is to allow Him to transform and renew the mind. In doing so, one can
ensure that everything done is in accordance with God’s “good, pleasing, and
perfect will”.
What are some of the
components of that will?
We learn them as we look
at the remainder of this chapter, starting with today’s passage drawn from
verse 3 and the second half of verse 16. Look again at these words here:
“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.”
“Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low
position. Do not be conceited.” Romans
12:3, 16b
In other words, God’s
word is telling us to humble ourselves and avoid arrogance.
Maybe you have seen
people who carry themselves around like they are to be worshiped because they
are superior to everyone else. They love to be in the spotlight and the center
of everyone’s attention. In fact, they crave the limelight so much that they
are willing to intentionally bring others down so they might be elevated above
them. This is the sinful place that arrogance and conceit can drag us if we’re
not careful. The focus turns to ourselves instead of the Lord.
Thankfully, this wasn’t
the way Jesus conducted Himself. Not even close.
In fact, Jesus was the
anti-egotist, even though He possessed power and authority greater than anyone
or anything. If anyone was going to lord over others and be able to do so
because they were legitimately in position to do so, it would have been Jesus
but he didn’t take that approach. Instead, He perfectly modeled Paul’s exhortation
from our text in Romans 12. Look at these two examples, first from Mark’s
Gospel:
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and
sinners were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who
followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating
with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: “Why does He eat
with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:15-17
And the other from Matthew:
When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed Him. A
man with leprosy came and knelt before Him and said, “Lord, if You are willing,
You can make me clean.”
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He
said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Matthew 8:1-3
The Jewish religious
authority figures, who carried themselves around as being spiritually superior
to all, couldn’t understand how Jesus could have dinner with people considered
outcasts and outsiders, people not worthy of any fellowship. They certainly
would never put themselves in that position. After all, they had a reputation
to uphold and they pridefully defended it with a passion.
And so, they asked Jesus’
disciples why He was doing what He was doing and Jesus caught wind of their
question, quickly offering a response:
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come
to call the righteous, but sinners.”
You would think the
Jewish leaders would see God’s desire to bring people to His righteousness and
this required a proactive approach. The Jewish religious leaders weren’t
willing to go to the places where sinners abided, to the places they considered
low positions, to the places where people needed to hear about God and His
judgment for those who chose to continue in sin. Jesus, on the other hand, made
such places His home, the place where He wanted be. He desired to be the great
spiritual Physician for the sick in spirit, the One who could make a person
healthy through restoring a right and righteous relationship with God.
In regard to the tax
collector, what guidance did Jesus provide as they came to be baptized?
“Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” He told them. Luke
3:12-13
In other words, Jesus
was commanding them to do right before the sight of God. Sinful tax collectors
were charging more than the Romans required from their fellow Jews and then
pocketed the difference. This practice is what made them despised within Jewish
society. Jesus ordered this practice to stop. At baptism, the tax collector was
to emerge from the water a changed man. Jesus told them the change that was
expected.
This is why Jesus hung
out with sinners. He was a change broker of the highest order, calling people
to become living sacrifices for God while allowing Him to transform and renew
their minds.
In the second example from
Matthew, Jesus had just finished His first extensive public teaching, a
teaching often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. As He came down from
where He preached, He had a large crowd following Him and it didn’t take long
for a great opportunity to present itself, an opportunity to practice what He
just finished teaching.
We read where a man
afflicted with leprosy came up to Jesus and knelt down, a gesture of respect
and humility. He had one simple request for Jesus and He proposed it with
absolute humility.
“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Note here how we learn
the matter of respect toward the Lord through the words of the leper. He knew
Jesus could make Him clean. That wasn’t even of question. But the fact that
Jesus could do it and whether He it was the right time for it to happen were
two very different things and we find the leper acknowledge it. He didn’t
demand that Jesus make him clean. Rather, he placed himself at the will of
Jesus and let it up to Him.
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He
said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Matthew 8:1-3
The story of the leper
had a happy ending. Note that it wasn’t necessarily the leper’s faith that
cleansed him but rather the will of Jesus the Healer. Because Jesus willed the
leper to be clean, he did indeed become that way.
Imagine how this story
would have looked if Jesus was no better than the Jewish religious authorities
who questioned Him for having fellowship with those who were deemed unworthy.
He wouldn’t have associated
with sinners to help get right with God and find salvation, and He certainly wouldn’t
have taken the time to even stop and consider a leper’s request for healing.
Thanks be to God that in
His Son, we see what it looks like to not think of oneself higher than one
ought but rather to adopt an attitude of sober judgment. Jesus was always about
His Father’s business to a fault, submitting to God’s will all the way to
Calvary’s cross. He never conducted Himself with conceit to where He couldn’t
associate with people of low position.
No, Jesus was the
perfect, humble Servant of His Father God and through Him, we learn the way to
avoid arrogance.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a
comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
