Humility vs. Pride

Introduction: How do you react to evil in the world?

And again, we are reminded by John of the things that get in the way of the transformation God is bringing in our lives.

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

The Flesh.

The Eyes.

The pride of life.

This week we look at pride. Pride is perhaps the root of all sin. The idea that we are the most important people in the world. Even for adam and eve it was the idea that they could be like God.

Transition to the text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 12:9-21. If you remember back in August as we started this sermon series, our theme for this whole year is

Romans 12:1–2 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

But what this verse teaches is going to have ramifications for our lives. And we see some here as we begin vs. 9. The life of a person giving themselves as a living sacrifice and not conforming to the world is going to massively different from the world around us.

And one of the primary places this difference shows up is in the contrast between how we deal with the problem of evil in the world especially how it directly affects us.

So here it is...

Introduce:

Transformational Principle: Overcome the world with love and humility.

Read:

Romans 12:9–21 ESV

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Transformational Principle: Overcome the world with love and humility.

Transition to the Points: Now vs. 21 is the summary verse of this passage and it generally tell us that good can overcome the evil in the world. But the previous verses tells us what kind of Good. It really comes down to love and humility and we’ll see why.

We start with love.

Main Point #1 - Love unconditionally. (Romans 12:9-13)

Explanations: I’ve heard it criticism that has been leveraged against the church that we should interpret the Bible through the lens of love. But what no one can agree is what it means to love.

Because let’s face it, unconditional love is a rare commodity that crumbles under life’s tests.

What we really have to do is let the Bible define what it means to love. And to be honest, most of us aren’t going to like what we find.

This passage begins with the command to “Let love be genuine.” So you might ask, what does genuine love look like.

First it is about “abhoring what is evil.”

Oh no! Now we have to define what is evil.

Most of us can easily say we hate what we consider evil.

We abhor murder, racism, human trafficking, domestic violence and putting pineapple on pizza. What we don’t realize is that evil isn’t always that extreme. Evil is anything contrary to the will of God. Little white lies are evil. Speeding on the highway is evil. (If you can’t say amen, say ouch).

In everything we do, ever single day we do evil things that run contrary to God’s will.

In fact, Jesus actually calls people evil in a rather innocuous way:

Matthew 7:11 ESV

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

But for us, we are to abhor all that is evil in ourselves and in others. We are to call others to account when they do evil things while we ourselves must make sure that we hold fast to what is good.

Genuine love is all about what is good and never about evil regardless of how small.

Genuine love also means loving those in the church with the same love with which we have for our biological family. Because in the end, we have more in common with a brother or sister united in Christ than we ever would with an unbelieving sibling.

We are to outdo one another in showing honor to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Illustration: I saw a small act of this shortly after joined a small group Bible study in 2004. I had just graduated and moved home and started attending a church where I was immediately invited to join this guys Bible study (similar to our CNC group). They rented a beachhouse in Ocean City, MD (a magical place) every Memorial Day week. They invited me to go.

When we arrived in one of the rooms a group of us were staying there were 4 twin beds for 5 people. How would we decide who got the beds and who slept on the floor. No one was willing that only one person be relegated to the floor so we all decided to sleep on the floor.

Now that may sound dumb to you, but like I’ve said, God’s ways are not like the ways of the world.

A bigger example in the church would be not allowing people in our church family to suffer alone. Honoring all without favoritism especially toward those who have no capacity to reciprocate.

We often think of genuine love as being directed at other people, but lets not forget that the greatest command is to:

Mark 12:30 ESV

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

So in this don’t be slothful in zeal, means don’t be lazy in your worship. In the COVID-19, world it’s really easy to be lazy in our worship and I’m not talking about whether you come in person or not. Think about how you approach worship on Sunday morning. Is it slothful or do you fully give yourself to God in this time.

Are you fervent in spirit? This simply means that your worship is emotional. Many of us are afraid of our emotions, but our worship of the God of the universe who sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins should stir up our emotions and affections for Him. What God has done should help us to love Him even more!

And through this, there should be a great desire to serve the Lord!

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer is a powerful reminder that even when life is a struggle, let us not be distracted from the God who loves us with His genuine love.

Lastly, genuine love sacrifices for the sake of others. Paul tells us that love means contributing to the needs of others and seek to show hospitality. He says specifically to the saints.

Not the New Orlean saints. And not catholic saints. The Bible uses the words “saint” to refer Christians. First and foremost we as Christians should care about the needs of other Christians. We can get so caught up in trying to meet the needs of the world when we neglect our own. Take care of Christians first.

Application: Now love here is the antidote to pride. We can get so caught up in the pride of life that we neglect what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian is antipride.

And throughout this section, we see actions and words that stand in complete contrast to the ways of the world.

We abhor what is evil not celebrate it.

We hold fast to what is good which means that there is an objective standard of goodness.

We love one another with a familial love that seeks to outdo showing honor to others instead of demanding that others honor us. This is especially true for pastors. I must be careful not to get so full of myself that I think I deserve honor.

Don’t be lazy in worship. It’s so easy to let your worship slack off in our world. So many other things that distract us. We have to remember that the most important thing we can do is worship and serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope when the world says despair.

Be patient in tribulation when the world says get even.

Be constant in prayer when the world says prayer doesn’t do anything.

Contribute to the needs of the saints when sometimes it feels like you need all the help.

Show hospitality.

The ways of God are not like the ways of the world.

Main Point #2 - Stay Humble. (Romans 12:14-16)

Explanations: Paul goes on to remind us to be humble. And humble is not a well understood word. It’s one of those words that is hard to define but you know it when you see it. In this case, we ought to be humble with regard to persecution. When people ridicule us or put us down, especially when it comes to our Christian faith and values, a wordly response would be to lash out and seek to defend ourselves. In a sense we want to get even. But that’s not what Paul says.

In humility, we bless those who persecute us. And we saw this in the lives of that early church. Modeled first by Jesus, he prayed, father forgive them for they know not what they do.” We then see Stephen pray the same thing as he is being stoned.

How Christians have endured persecution over the centuries has been a great stimulator of evangelistic growth. Blessing those who persecute you can lead to that person embracing Jesus. Lashing out is a failure to show them the genuine love that God sends our way and might get in the way of them coming to know Jesus.

Another worldly concept is the idea of karma. In a sense the world also agrees that we shouldn’t try to get even and tries to assure us that there is a cosmic power that keeps everything in balance called karma. Just because it seems like someone gets away with something karma will get them in the end.

Karma is not in the Bible. In fact, the Christian should pray the opposite. Rather than praying that karma would get them, we should pray as Jesus didn’t that God would show the same grace and mercy on them as He did on us when we first believed. We should pray that by blessing those who persecute us, they would come to know Jesus.

Illustration: What do you think will happen when Paul runs into Stephen in heaven? Paul watched the coats of them men who stoned Stephen. Paul watched on approvingly. Do you think Stephen will ask, how did this guy get in to heaven? Nope, he will rejoice! And we should as well.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep is not about rejoicing or weeping but about knowing what’s going on in others. The humble person is not going to rejoice when another is weeping. And the humble person is not going to weep while another is rejoicing. In humility you consider the emotional needs of others as more important than yourself.

Don’t be haughty. Haughty is a type of arrogance that looks down on others who we don’t deem as important or as good as we are. It’s about not thinking you are better than others for any number of reasons. But in their case, you had a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds in the early church. The rich aristocrat in caesar’s household was not above the household servant. There should be no caste system in the church. And then also don’t be wise in your own eyes.

Application: Humility is kind of an invisible quality that the moment you realize you have it, you lose it. Many of us know people that we would say are humble. We also know people we’d say are arrogant. Neither of those people tend to know it.

So how can you become more humble if you aren’t supposed to know you are humble?

Great question. Focus on Jesus. Spend time with Jesus in the word and in prayer. Meditate over His whole world. The closer you get to Jesus, the more you will be transformed into His likeness which will naturally be more humble.

Main Point #3 - Be Resilient. (17-21)

Explanations: As you read over vss. 17-21, you might be tempted to despair. This is no small task.

Repay no one evil for evil even if we feel they deserve it.

Consider how our words and actions in the midst of suffering and persecution reflect on God.

vs. 18 is a verse that we should memorize.

Romans 12:18 ESV

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

First of all, remember that it’s not always possible. Secondly, it doesn’t always depend on you. Sometimes people just hate you because of your faith. Sometimes it’s family. Other times it’s total strangers. But don’t get them any more fuel for the burning fire that is raging against God within them. Always show love. Be resilient in showing love.

Never avenge yourselves.

Vengeance isn’t always about getting someone back. Sometimes vengeance is as simple as making sure someone knows you’re mad them. Sometimes it’s tattling on them. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to let it go.

And this is the great encouragement of the Christian faith. No one gets away with anyone. The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness.

All sin is accounted for. Ever sin is paid for. The wrath of God is coming.

Either that person will pay for his or her sin for eternity in hell. Or that sin, like yours and mine, was paid for at the cross. And whose to say if God isn’t also pleased to save them from their sin…even if what they did to us doesn’t seem fair.

Illustration: Many of us love a good story of retribution. Someone getting what they deserve. We love it when the police catch the thief. We love it when someone goes speeding past us only to get pulled over up the road.

We love going back to our 20 year reunion and find that the guy who bullied us in middle school never amounted to anything and still lives in his parent’s basement.

We love these stories because we think it’s justice.

But I’m so happy that I didn’t get what I deserve. I’m so glad in that in his grace, God was pleased to send Jesus to die on the cross for my sins so that rather than getting what I deserve, I get to spend eternity with Him.

And because of HIs grace on me, I am empowered to extend that same grace to people who mistreat me. And in humility, we overcome the world.

Application:

One of my favorite verses in

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus knew that the disciples would have trouble. He also knew that this would be a barrier to their transformation. So he modelled for them humility.

Don’t get even.

If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Thirsty? Give him something to drink.

What does it mean to heap burning coals on his head?

I think it means to make him think, “Why are they doing this?” And in asking, they will be pointed to Jesus.

You see, at the end of the day, you don’t change the world the way the world think you should. You don’t overcome the world through strong leadership or even retaliation. You overcome the world by doing good. You overcome the world with love and humility.

Response: Do you need a new perspective on the world? More loving? More Humble? More resilient?

Conclusion:

One person who always comes to mind when I think of this passage is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1967, in the face of great racial unrest at the height of the civil right’s movement, he wrote:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

After everything that black Americans have gone through in our Nation’s history that was an amazing statement that still rings true today?

And where did he get it? From the Bible.

The entire civil right’s movement was built on biblical principles of forgiveness and grace.

Doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat. But as Christians we go about things in a different way.

MLK epitomized someone who refused to fight evil with evil. And his voice still rings out today.

As Christians, we must refuse to fight our battles the way that the world does. We don’t retaliate. We don’t pray for karma. We don’t seek to get even. We don’t even rejoice when that other person finally gets what’s coming to them.

We fight evil with humility and love.

Why?

Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Because of our great sin against God (all sin is against God).

We deserved punishment. But rather than God’s wrath being poured out on us, God poured it out on Jesus, who became our substitute.

Because of Jesus, when we repent and put our faith in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, God doesn’t hold our sins against us.

But rather, we are set free from our bondage to sin and death and given eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Because God doesn’t get even with us for our sin, we ought also to be patient and forgiving with those who hurt us.

If anyone has ever modeled, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, it’s Jesus.

The greatest, most humble and loving act was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. This is our example.

Go and do likewise.

Let’s pray.