Arrogance, the Silent Killer

Arrogance is a silent killer. I don’t think I or Christians in general take it serious enough. Consider the ways arrogance kills.

It kills relationships and destroys unity among believers. How many churches have been split, how many small groups abandoned, and how many friendships have ended because someone started thinking they were better or smarter than someone else and started talking down to or thinking less of other people?

It kills opportunities to share the Gospel and destroys the witness of Christ in a community. How many Churches and Christians have abandoned their responsibility to love those outside of Christ and have made it their job to criticize those outside of Christ? As believers, we are to be wise stewards of our lives and to avoid sin. This does not mean that we think ourselves better than other people and begin to judge them based on our standards that they know nothing about. People in our cities don’t need our fingers wagging in their faces. They need the embrace of our handshake and hug.

It kills ministries and destroys ministers. How many Christians think that they have done their part and no longer need to serve the church? How many Christians think they have a ministry that they want or need to do that goes outside of the direction the church leadership has provided and instead of following the leaders have set out to do their own thing? How many Christians have decided their way of ministry is the way and have sabotaged a minister’s work causing them stress (Hebrews 13:17) and forcing them to be miserable or even leave a ministry?

It kills the soul of a person and destroys joy. How many Christians have come to think so much of themselves that they can not tolerate the people of God they consider weak, immature, or incapable? Or if they do tolerate them, have come to think so little of them that their patronizing critical tone has ended any opportunity for a real relationship. There is no joy in that life.

Remember what the Bible teaches us:

Proverbs 11:2 “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

God will bring judgment on arrogant people. What is so sad is that it will not just impact the arrogant person. It will also hurt those connected to them. It will impact their children, their spouse, their friends, and their church. What is worse is that most of the time their pride will blind them to what they are doing and the consequences of their actions until is it too late.

So what should we do? Scripture tells us to “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).

Our only hope is the Gospel. We must admit to God and to others that we are sinful people that are prone to be arrogant. We must believe that Christ loved us so much that He was willing to humble Himself so we could be saved. We must confess our love and belief in Christ and lives as He lived. Philippians 2:5-8 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

We must sacrifice our pride on the altar of humility and live lives that show that we are unworthy sinners who’ve been shown grace and mercy by God. We show grace and mercy and give unconditional love because God has given it to us. There is no place for pride in a life lived in, for, and through the power of Christ.