“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
There is one thing that we learn as we grow into adulthood: We will always have to deal with people – all sorts of people. We have to deal with them at work, at church, and in the communities in which we live. But there is one main person that we have to deal with and this is self. This is the person that we have to deal with twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This is the person that we look at in the mirror every day. Our relationships with others will depend a lot on how we deal with self. Paul gives us some advice on this business of dealing with self. First, he tells us “not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think." That is, that we should not be conceited and think that we are better than everyone else. In order to keep from being conceited we need to not think of ourselves more often than we should think. If we aren’t careful, we will find our days consumed with thoughts about ourselves, and everything that we think or do, has to do with how things will affect “me.” To a certain extent this is natural, but when we think of self too much, we will spiritually and emotionally alienate ourselves from other people. Self preservation is a natural instinct, but to be obsessed with self preservation is not only unspiritual, it is unhealthy. Everything is not about us and how things affect us. Preoccupation with self interferes with our fellowship with each other. Take a little time and consciously try to think of yourself less and others more. Try not to make everything about yourself. Second, he tells us to “think soberly” about ourselves. This means that we should give serious thought to ourselves and be honest with ourselves about ourselves. We should take an honest look at ourselves, and if we are thinking about ourselves too highly or too frequently, we should ask God to help us to have a healthy view of self. I know from personal experience that it is sometimes difficult to look at ourselves honestly and to tell ourselves the truth about ourselves. It will horrify us sometimes that we are as preoccupied with ourselves as we are. Jesus is certainly our example here. I think that Jesus had a healthy view of Himself, and He certainly wasn’t hampered with feelings of inferiority, but He always took time to think about and minister to other people. Even when Jesus tried to get away and spend some time alone, He would always end up ministering to the people who came to Him. He looked with compassion on other people. It is at this point that we need to ask ourselves if we are compassionate toward other people, or if we just tolerate them. Think honestly, now, about your relationships with people. Does “self” keep getting in the way? Third, he told us to think “soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.” We don’t usually think about faith as a gift from God, but it is. He has given us a “measure of faith” so that we can look at ourselves soberly and put ourselves in line with what faith is demanding of us. In the Bible, people like Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to think soberly about themselves. Would their faith enable these ordinary men to give up their occupation as fishermen, follow Jesus and become “fishers of men”? It was by faith that these men surrendered “self” to Jesus and went about doing what He would have them do. Maybe it is time that we took a look at ourselves and ask ourselves what difference our faith is making in our lives pertaining to decisions that we make about service for the Lord. Bro. Joe
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"“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” KJV
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also on the interests of others.” ESV It is not unusual for us to take our own interests very seriously. After all, a lot of our interests have to do with our families. In fact, the Bible is hard on people who do not look after their own interests. One who does not look out for the interests of his family is called a heretic in the Bible. But we need to remember that we live in the world with other people and they have interests also. The height of immaturity for a Christian is to think only of himself or herself. This is not unusual in a child, but as one grows up, he or she needs to learn that sometimes they have to recognize the other person. This is the advice that Paul is giving to the Philippians, who were having a fellowship problem (see Philippians 4:1-3) in which some were probably tempted to take sides. It is important for our Christian witness that we not be selfish and look out only for our own interests. In the verses following in this chapter Paul used the greatest example of selflessness that mankind has known –Jesus. (Verses 5-11) He was certainly not thinking of himself when he went to the cross. Paul wrote: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” The suggestion here is that in the matter of selfishness, we need to use Jesus as our model. Jesus lived a selfless life, ministering to people on a daily basis. If Jesus had tended to His own interests alone, we would be in great trouble. Jesus knew that He came to earth, not only to live a perfect life, but to die as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. In John 10:17-18, Jesus said: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may have it again. 18. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” You are probably thinking at this point that you are not Jesus. I am certainly not claiming that I live up to the example of Jesus, nor am I suggesting that you have to live up to that perfect example. But it should be our aim to be as much like Christ as possible. If we did that, we would certainly be more aware of the interests of other people. When we are not Christ like in our approach to the interests of others, we show a poor witness to the world. We see this happen in churches when they split because two (or more) sides cannot come to agreement for the sake of their gospel witness to the community. This occurs because people are thinking about their own interests and not the interests of others, and certainly not the interests of Christ. I have said many times in sermons, and have written it many times, that there is nothing wrong with Christians disagreeing, they just need to disagree like Christians and not like politicians. (If you get my drift.) It comes down the matter of whether we are going to live our lives by our own will or by the will of God. It is certainly not God’s will that we live selfish lives. We read a lot about this in the Bible. Take Moses for example: He seemed perfectly happy tending his father-in-law’s sheep in Midian. I get the idea that he was living a comfortable life. Then God came to him in the “burning bush” and his life was changed forever. His life after God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt did not allow him to be selfish. He had to think about what God wanted and what he could to help his people. This is true of a lot of the best people in the Bible. They couldn’t have been the great men and women of God that they became if they thought only of their own interests, nor can we. Ask yourself if you are selfish, or if you are making an attempt to be selfless? None of us will be perfect in this matter, but we should surely try to do better. Bro. Joe “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden…”
The first three verses of Psalm 1 are about the godly person. Verse 3 says of him (or her): "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
“I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
This verse teaches us that we should be givers, because it is more “blessed to give than to receive.” It is a hard lesson to learn, but it is good lesson and is true. We should seek to be givers. We need to give money. (We might as well start with this one and get it over with.lol) Throughout the Bible we are taught to be generous with our money. The young man that we call the “rich young ruler” was told about the importance of this. He wanted to know how to receive eternal life. Jesus told him that he should sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and he would free himself to really see the need for eternal life. The lesson from this incident is that the man’s money and possessions were keeping him from surrendering himself to the Lord. We should give our money to the Lord’s work and be generous with what is left. Jesus was trying to teach the young man that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” We will not learn this lesson until we learn to give our money to some causes beyond ourselves. We need to give of ourselves. We not only need to give our money, we also need to give of our time and effort for someone beyond ourselves. This does not mean that we do not need to look out for ourselves; it just means that we keep ourselves from life’s blessings when we fail to give of ourselves. Writing these CouchPotato articles is one way I have of giving of myself. Of course, it is not the only way, but I started this when I could not do anything else because of illness. The Lord taught me that this was how I could give of myself, even if I could not get off of the couch. I can get off of the couch now, but I still feel the need to share in this way. What are you doing to give of yourself? We should give compassion. It is easy to become self-indulgent and uncaring in this “land of plenty” in which we live. We need to not just feel compassion, but we need to also act with compassion. I am sure that the priest and Levite felt sorry for the man that they passed by on the Jericho Road, but their feeling sorry for him did not help him. When the “Good Samaritan” came along, he did not just feel sorry for the man, but he reached out to him with compassion and actually helped him. There is a lot more to being a giver than the three things that I have dealt with, but they are a good place to start. Be a giver! Bro. Joe “Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.”
Because of a famine in Jerusalem, churches from various areas pledged to send love offerings to the church there. In our text, Paul urged the Corinthians to make good on their promise to take part in sending this offering. At first, they had been all for it, but as time passed their zeal for giving had flagged somewhat. Paul is reminding them in 2 Corinthians 9:5 to give and to give generously because of the reciprocal nature of giving. He used an agricultural metaphor to illustrate his point. If one plants a lot of seed, he or she can expect an abundant crop. If one plants sparingly, his or her crop will not be abundant. This is a principle that applies not just to crops but to all areas of life. As to the matter of giving money, we have discovered that we do not miss what we give. In fact the more we give, the more we prosper. The Bible is full of admonitions to be generous with what God has given us. This principle applies, not just to giving to the church, but to being a giving person in all of life. The principle also applies to more than giving money. (But this is not an excuse not to give money, as some see it. Just saying...) It applies to our attitudes. If we give out grumpiness, we will receive grumpiness in return. I remember that when our daughters were much younger, we visited Disney World. Now there was a real jolly world, except for one character. As we walked along the street, we encountered “Grumpy.” He really lived up to his name. (That’s when I decided that Grumpy is a Baptist…. Come on, it’s a joke – sort of. lol) Give out grumpiness and you get grumpiness back in spades. This can also be true of love, or joy, etc. etc. etc. Remember 2 Corinthians 9:5 when the collection plate comes around in church. Better yet, remember it when you go out into daily life and mingle with people. Bro. Joe “And when (Jesus) looked round about on them with anger, being grieved over the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”
Jesus went into a synagogue in Capernaum on a Sabbath morning, He saw a man with a “withered” hand. The Pharisees present there were looking to see if Jesus would heal the man on the Sabbath. Jesus did heal the man, after which the Pharisees, in league with the Herodians, plotted to kill Jesus. Our text tells us that Jesus was grieved because of the “hardness of their hearts.” The word “hardness” caught my attention, and I thought about what that meant. I want to share what this means based on a study of the Greek word for “hardness.” This meant that their hearts were “callow.” We would say that they had callous hearts. This means that they were unfeeling and unsympathetic toward the man. People, who would have rescued their donkey on a Sabbath day, had no feeling for the plight of the man with a paralyzed hand who needed healing. If our religious rules keep us from empathizing with real needs, we need to examine our hearts and see if our hearts have grown hard. This meant that their hearts were insensitive. The relationship that we have with Jesus should make us sensitive to the needs of people around us. A lack of sensitivity shows inattentiveness to the people and circumstances around us. The Pharisees were not thinking about the man, but about their own rules. (There was no Sabbath rule that forbad helping people.) This is reminiscent of the priest and Levite in the parable of the “Good Samaritan.” If you remember, those religious men went right on by a man who was bleeding to death on the side of the Jericho Road. The parable is reminding us that when we encounter people and circumstances that call of a touch from Jesus through us that we need to reach out with a caring hand. This meant that their hearts were selfish. Jesus was grieved because they did not think of anything beyond themselves. They didn’t think about the fact that the man could not work because of his paralyzed hand. In that day, that could have meant that he and his family would have gone hungry because he could not draw a day’s pay. Jesus pays attention when we think only of ourselves, and we cause His heart to grieve. We need to examine our hearts and see if they are “hardened.” Bro. Joe “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
All of us need to pause and ask ourselves if we are selfish or selfless. I don't think any of us will find it easy to answer. It is difficult to overcome "self." It would amaze us if we could find a way to count the numbers of times that we think of self or do something selfish on a daily basis. It is something that we need to think about seriously. This is one of the points at which Jesus wants to change our lives. Praying and attempting to live selflessly is one of the most Christ like things that we can do. This is, after all, how Christ lived. He didn't think of Himself when He ministered tirelessly to the multitudes who were "like sheep without a shepherd." He didn't think of Himself when He continued to heal and minister to people after he had passed the point of exhaustion. He didn't think of Himself when He went to the cross. As a matter of fact, His first words from the cross were "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." The verses that follow our printed text tell us this about the matter: "5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. 6. Who, being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. 7. But made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Jesus certainly didn’t do this for selfish reasons. He did it to save us from sin. Christlikeness is not wearing our Christian faith on our sleeves. It is not talking in holy tones. It is doing something for others and not thinking about ourselves all of the time. Perhaps the most egregious kind of selfishness is to pretend to be interested in other people and their lives, and doing it in order to bring praise to ourselves. One of Jesus’ main problems with the Pharisees was that they did things that looked good, like giving alms for the poor, for the express purpose of adding to their own conceit. It is certainly not wrong if others notice our good works, but it is wrong if we serve for self-aggrandizement. In calling His followers the light of the world, Jesus said that we should let our “lights shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.” Another thing that we need to think about is that we should not always live to please ourselves. Don’t misunderstand what I am pointing out. It is not always wrong to do things for ourselves. For example, we need to look out for our health and be sure that we take care of ourselves. Also, there is nothing wrong with loving ourselves. In fact, it is healthy to have a good opinion of ourselves. The problem comes when we become preoccupied with ourselves and our love for ourselves turns into outright conceit. When we get to a point that all we think about is our own comfort, our own glory and our own image, we have gone beyond Christian love for ourselves. We should live so that we can feel good about ourselves, and that means not being selfish. One of the worst things about selfishness is that it is a poor witness for Jesus Christ. This can be said about churches as well as individual Christians. When churches turn in upon themselves and only serve the purposes of their own interests and when they become a closed family instead of an inviting fellowship, they have gone beyond where Christ would take them. A church should be a family, but it should be a family with open arms always willing to welcome people into the circle. Instead of turning our backs on the community, we should selflessly serve the community. It is not always easy to live selflessly, but it is always rewarding. We would be better people, better Christians, better neighbors and better church members if we would be selfless instead of selfish. Bro. Joe |
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