Humility is not natural, even for Christians! We easily slide the focus from the Lord Jesus Christ to 'my faith', ‘my church’, ‘my ministry’, ‘my mission’ and 'me'. Moving the spotlight from ‘Him’ to ‘me’ is Satan’s objective for us individually and as families, for every church, each ministry and all gospel missions.
Religion easily fuels pride. We saw it recently while exploring Galatians in Word@Work. The Judaisers were aggressively proud of their ability to keep the Law; and it seems that the new believers had their own superiority issues. That is why the Apostle Paul ended his letter with, “Let us not be conceited, provoking and envying each other." (Galatians 5:26), and “If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.” (Galatians 6:3).
Before his conversion, Paul was bursting with arrogance. But at the end of Galatians – in his own large handwriting – he states his own rule of life, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14).
Despite the latent narcissism that lurks in every heart and propels our sinfulness, the reality is that none of us is a ‘lead player on God's stage'. A sober reflection is that only Jesus has been given that role. At most, we have a very temporary supporting role, but usually we are just walk-on extras. Even the theatrical analogy gives us the clue: when we seek the limelight we are play-acting – for which the Greek word is ‘hypocrite’.
We are not designed to be masters of the world (or even the Christian world) – to think that we are, is to play Satan’s game. We are created to be servants of the Most High God. Our highest aim is to obey His commands. What extra credit is there when we do what we are told? Jesus said to His disciples (who had their own power struggles), “… you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (Luke 17:10).
Our problem is not only that we think too much about ourselves, but that we think about ourselves - too much! We become the focus of our thoughts. When we, our feelings, our ambitions, our gifts … or even our ministries, our church or our mission take centre stage – something is wrong, because the spotlight is misplaced and the glory is going in the wrong direction. Even the words ‘ministry’ and ‘minister’ should give us a clue: they mean ‘service’ and ‘servant’.
John Newton, the once-boastful slave-ship captain, who was converted to serve Jesus Christ, wrote at the age of 82, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Saviour”
One of our Word@Work readers wrote this reflection on the problem of conceit, highlighted in Galatians 5:26, “You have hit the nail on the head, as far as I am concerned, for I have been guilty of the sin you have highlighted today. I have lived with this sin for decades and not seen it as a sin, but in the last few years it has come to my awareness through the Scriptures.”
Please pray that the BeaconLight team and our partners overseas, and you as a BeaconLight supporter, may keep the spotlight on Jesus – being His humble servants, giving Him the glory and letting Him be in the lead.