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Pastor Jay's Blog

So You Think You’re Something

 

Self-esteem prattle is for cowards. What we all need is to be esteemed rightly. Paul says in Romans 12:3 that everyone should “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment…” So the goal is not high esteem but right esteem. We need to judge ourselves by the right standard for the right purposes.

So what is the right standard? On what basis do we esteem ourselves rightly? Jesus’ answer is clear; by the first and second commandment. Matthew 22:37-40 says “And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

What really grabbed me the other day was seeing a couple of things I hadn’t seen before. First, I saw that this measure of judgment is repeated through the NT. Of the two great commandments, guess which gets repeated three different times? Not the first, but the second. It shows up in Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 6:2, and James 2:8. This means that love for God, which is the first command and therefore the most important, is primarily lived out through loving people and helping them to love God first and foremost. The other thing I think this indicates is that the apostles honed in on a singular way to evaluate people. With one feld swoop, they were able to call for every good deed, every bold endeavor, and every act of sacrifice through a singular call to love. If you can drop a nuclear bomb, you don’t need to depend on individual missiles.

The second thing I saw was just how effective this evaluation tool was when I saw it in Paul’s treatment in Galatians 6. Paul’s call there was to bear each other’s burdens. This is one of the outworkings of loving your neighbor. It is Paul’s next two verses that really show how to use this principle for self-evaluation. Verse 3 says “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” The word “for” means that Paul is drawing an application. It doesn’t matter what else you are doing, how much money you make, or how much people respect you; if you aren’t fulfilling the law by bearing people’s burdens then you are nothing. Then in verse 4 and 5 Paul shows us how to use this for self-evaluation. He says to examine your work. Pay no attention to what others are doing or how much they are doing it. You look at yourself and see how many resources you have, the depth and breadth of ability, and the opportunities around you. If you have high resources, high opportunity, and low amounts of burden bearing, then you are nothing. You are self-deceived and you need to repent. Verse 5 says there is a load you ought to be carrying. That load will be a mix of your burdens and other’s burdens.

So this is the standard for self-evaluation. Are you fulfilling the law of God through love of neighbor? Love of neighbor will play out in unique ways for each of us. But do not be deceived. If you are attempting to sail through life without getting weighed down by people and their problems, selfishly consuming what God has given you; then you are not pulling your weight, Christian. You have a load to bear, and you need to bend down, get your shoulder up under someone and love them by the power of the Spirit.

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