Romans 12:1-3 is a great passage concerning holiness. We tend to hear much about the living sacrifice and reasonable service. We hear much about not being conformed to the world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Usually that's all you hear. So many leave the next verse out of the equation. To me that next verse is key to the whole concept.
Paul issues a warning: no one should think more highly of themselves than they ought to think! Being renewed in your mind consists of a change of attitude FIRST about yourself! A healthy understanding of who you are and who you are not is essential if one is to be transformed and thus holy.
Note that thinking highly of yourself is not disparaged. We should be confident as children of God. We are His sons and daughters! We are royalty, we are the Church, we are His Body! Christians should be secure, stable, sound minded, and at peace with who they have become in Christ.
Its the idea of thinking of oneself "more highly than he ought to think" that is condemned. It is crossing that line of meek self-assurance to smug self-conceit that the Scriptures denounce.
Self-importance is a deep wickedness. It lies latent within all of us to promote ourselves as smarter, better, more deserving, more talented, and superior to everyone else. Because it is rooted in a lie, someone has to give in to self-deception to embrace such notions.
To think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, you have to do it at the expense of others. You have to consistently find someone you can wield your superiority over, someone you can control, someone you can manipulate, someone you can bully, badger or plague.
Small minded men need to feel important. Diminutive spirits must assert their pre-eminence. It was Lucifer who could not accept that he was God's most stunning creation to that point in time. He could not accept God's glory. He had to have it all for himself. He had to lay claim to lordship.
That's the difference between a truly holy child of God and counterfeit holiness. One is rooted in the attitude of holiness, the other is rooted in something sinister and very evil. One is embedded in the modesty, meekness and gentleness of the Savior, the other is entrenched in territorialism, domination, privilege, seniority, government, and supremacy. One draws men unto Christ, the other drives people away.
The New Living Translation says of
Romans 12:3, "...be honest in the estimation of yourself..." The rest of the chapter continues with the notion of the Body of Christ and its many members and their diverse functions and purposes.
If there is ever going to be unity in the Body, there must be a willingness to accept its diversity. We must all accept that everyone has their place and function. We are all connected to the Head of the Body, Jesus. We all believe He is God. We all believe He is One. We all are baptized into His Name. We all have received of His Spirit. Therefore we must love one another, value one another, and appreciate one another, even if there is a member of the Body that is different than we are, serves a different purpose or sees things differently.
We oftentimes call someone we don't like a "cancer". In actuality cancer is the absence of diversity: its too much of the same types of cells collecting to the point of the destruction of the body. A dysfunction of a cell is when it begins to overduplicate causing growths and tumors, endangering the life of the body. Livers are great, but too much liver is dangerous. Prostates are vital but too much prostate is a killer. White blood cells are essential, but too many white blood cells are lethal.
If we think so highly of ourselves that we expect every member of the Body to think, act, speak, look, and operate exactly like we do, we are, in essence, hoping for a cancerous growth to appear in the Body. We have to be willing to accept our differences if we are going to be a healthy church, organization, community, or forum.
Let a healthy self-image rooted in who Jesus is and who belongs to Him guide our dealings with one another. If not, we are danger of killing our church, our organization, and yes, perhaps even this forum.
It's ALL good!!!
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