I’ve been thinking… I’m probably the best Christian I know. Now if that sounds weird, well, it should. Deep down there’s an inherent contradiction by saying that.

It’s kind of like that one incident in 2008 where a guy in a movie theater shot other people because they were talking during the movie.  Granted, they were watching “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” so maybe it’s a little understandable he was a little insane. Now what would annoy you more during a movie? Talking? Or gunfire? It’s a contradiction.

It’s the same thing with believing you are a great Christian. You would think that the the closer you are to God – the less you sin. But in reality, the more you spiritually mature, the more sin you see in yourself. It’s just that you weren’t spiritually mature enough to see that sin before.

It’s like God is this big bright light.  The further you are from the light, the less dirt you see on yourself.  But the closer you get to the light, the more dirt you see. And remember, we get closer to God, the more humble we are.

James 4:6 “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you.

As we grow closer to God, we start to understand that we don’t judge our goodness in comparison to other Christians, but in comparison to a perfect God.

So what do we do now?

We want to guard against the natural sense of pride.  That somehow we are better that others that either aren’t as spiritual as us, or have different political views, or are big fat jerks. We all have a tendency to think we’re better than someone out there – especially people we have problems with.  This prevents us from growing closer to God since “God opposes the proud”.

So we need to think about the people we feel superior to and instead of feeling better than them, we need to feel love for them and then pray for them. We are not superior to them, we are sinners just like them.  While they have their sins, so do we. So let’s not add pride to one of those sins. Our spiritual maturity should bring about humility, which brings us closer to God as well as other people.

And a spiritually mature person knows not to shoot people in a theater. I mean, come on, there’s like a ton of witnesses.

Proverbs 3:6-7 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. ⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness. Take time to pray for wisdom and humility.