The poison of arrogance

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment… Romans 12:3 

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign  - and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign, so that we also might reign with you! 1 Corinthians 4:8-9

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write… You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  Revelation 3:14,17

Do you know anyone who is arrogant? The very word is ugly, and there are plenty of alternatives: self-righteous, proud, vain, too big for their boots, complacent, a bit fond of themselves, over-confident… We might apply it to a neighbour, to someone at work or some organisation we belong to. However we describe it, the plain fact is that we just don’t like it: “Who do they think they are…?” we mutter.

But we need to be careful – the three quotes above make it clear that arrogance can rear its ugly head among God’s people. In Romans 12:3 Paul addresses individual church members; in 1 Corinthians 4:8-9 he addresses (not without a heavy dose of sarcasm!) a whole church; and in Revelation 3:14,17 Jesus addresses the church of Laodicea as a whole.

Could it just possibly be that you, or I, are guilty of arrogance? Could it just possibly be that the church we belong to is guilty of arrogance?

If we read the whole of the letter of Jesus to the church in Laodicea – that’s all of Revelation 3:14-22 – we find that the essence of their problem is that they are self-deluded; they’re so smug that they just can’t see what is obvious to everybody else.

They are “luke-warm”, when no doubt they think they are red-hot Christians. They think thy are “rich”, no doubt meaning in spiritual terms, when in fact they are “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (that’s not a pretty list, is it!). They think they are specially precious to Jesus, but they are blissfully unaware that he is (verse 16) “about to spit them out of his mouth” (just try picturing that!).

Churches that come across as arrogant probably fall into one of two traps.

First, they may have grown impressively and therefore have all the trappings of what the world calls “success”: fine buildings, bulging congregations, plenty of money, a wide range of activities, and gifted people to run them.

And what’s wrong with that? Nothing at all, of course. Would that more churches answered to that kind of description!

But the question may arise: what of the spirit of such churches? Is there a subconscious “We’ve made it!” mentality: or, as the Laodiceans thought, “I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing”? Could it be that what started as a humble gathering of ordinary Christians, Christians who knew very well their total dependence on the Holy Spirit, has curdled into something that Jesus’ tongue finds distasteful – indeed, something spittable, if I may invent a word.

In America some years ago I made a point of visiting two quite famous “mega-churches” in a big city. Certainly, all those “trappings of success” were there, but I found it hard not to feel that the atmosphere of one was humble, edifying and Spirit-led, while the other – well, this could of course just be me, but let’s say that I was glad to get away at the end.

I was reminded of a basic Bible principle: Only God’s opinion ultimately matters. Obvious, when you stop to think about it.

Second, churches that come across as arrogant may be those which pride themselves primarily on their doctrinal accuracy; perhaps they have fallen into the trap of seeing themselves not so much as communities of brothers and sisters in Christ, but as teaching centres where all that seems to matter is an accurate understanding of scripture.

In my student years, many years ago now, I used to attend such a church, and I still think with gratitude of all I learned as a young Christian. But in the years since, I have discovered that – how shall I put this? – there was a lot I needed to unlearn. Such churches can easily breed a mentality of “We’re the only real Christians around here”, and decline to recognise as truly Christian other churches which may interpret scripture differently, and refuse to co-operate with them.

To be fair to them, they are determined to open up God’s word with strict accuracy, which of course is vitally important. But can it also result in a mentality of fear, a nervousness of displeasing God by getting some minor aspect of teaching wrong? And may it thus come across as dry and intellectual, creating a community that has unwittingly “quenched the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19)?

There’s a balance we need to strike here. On the one hand we should be people of strong, bold convictions, refusing to water down timeless biblical truths; on the other hand we should be humble and teachable enough to say, “Of course, I could be wrong”, even willing to change. After all, Jesus said of prophets – people who professed to teach the truth - “By their fruit you shall know them”, not by their doctrinal correctness (Matthew 7:15-23).

We might say of an arrogant person, “He really makes something of himself!” But let’s not forget that it was said of Jesus, the perfect living Word of God, “he made nothing of himself …he humbled himself” (Philippians 2:7-8). Isn’t that our calling too?

Father, forgive me if there are times when I love Jesus too little and myself too much. Teach me the humility of him who “made himself nothing” even to the extent of dying on the cross. Amen.