Love is Not Arrogant
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant (1 Corinthians 13:4)
How many times have we looked at someone on television, or at school, or in the news and thought “That guy sure is arrogant”? And when we thought that, what exactly did we mean?
Am I arrogant if I willing to insist that I am right about some issue? Am I arrogant if I think I can demonstrate to the person who disagrees with me that I am correct and they are wrong? Perhaps. But if that’s so, then we have to call Jesus arrogant. He always insisted he was right, and worse, He appealed to scripture to prove He was right.
When He was talking to the Sadducees He insisted they were wrong about there being no resurrection. Then he went to Scripture to show them they were wrong (Matt 22:32). He didn?t try to compromise. He didn’t try to make it look as if He wasn?t really disagreeing with them. Instead, Jesus made it clear that they were wrong and that He was right. Was Jesus arrogant? No. Not unless Jesus was also a sinner, since arrogance is always spoken of very negatively.
Paul tells Titus that a bishop ??must not be arrogant?must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it. (Titus 1:7, 9) The only reason I am going to refute something is if I believe that which the other person is saying is wrong and I believe I am right. No, confidence in the correctness of my position is not arrogance.
So what is arrogance?
The Bible talks about arrogance over and over, from Psalms to Proverbs, to Jeremiah, to the New Testament. And never does it speak positively of this quality.
In the New Testament, arrogance seems more tied to my attitude than to what I know or who I may disagree with (unless of course it’s God I’m disagreeing with). First Corinthians 8:1 actually lays this out fairly clearly when it warns us that knowledge makes me arrogant, but love helps build the saints within the church. That is to say, if the only thing I have is knowledge (Jesus is the only mediator between man and God, salvation is through faith, Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, etc, etc) then there is no telling how I will treat those I may wish to share these truths with. If any of you remember Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son (my favorite visual aid), she is practically the perfect example of arrogance and its results. Calling Fred an “ol’ heathen” was simply the result of her thinking herself more deserving of God?s graciousness than him.
Coming in with the attitude of “I know and you don’t” does not show humility. It demonstrates instead that I consider myself superior to the person I am talking to. While I may know a few things more than the other person, I have to remember that all that I am is only through the grace of God and through no special merit of my own. Indeed I study, but it is God who gives me the wisdom to clearly and accurately share His truths with the church.
The arrogant Christian is the one who considers himself to be more than he really is in God?s eyes. She’s the one who looks not at how to edify others with the gifts God has given her, but seeks to make herself look good at others’ expense, because after all she deserves it.
Arrogance denies the wisdom of God and insists on promoting my own program. Jeremiah 9:23-24 pretty well sums it up when it states:
Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.
Don’t boast in your own wisdom. It’s foolishness. Don’t trust in your might. It’s helplessness in comparison to God?s might. And as I take this attitude I will grow in a dependence on Him. I will grow in humility.
However if I do any less than this, I am practicing arrogance. And no matter how soft spoken I am, not matter how often people compliment me on my humility, no matter how much I pretend, I am being arrogant. And remember, God doesn?t like arrogance.
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