Adam is a member of Faith Protestant Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan. This essay was written in Mr. Scott Van Uffelen’s Church History class at Covenant Christian High School.
We often think of ourselves (as individuals or groups) as being better than others. We do this subconsciously but the bad effects can be seen in real life. We need to first realize that this is a problem and then we can try to fix it.
If you are clearly proud and exalt of yourself, then you will be perceived to have problems because of your attitude. One of the results of this attitude is that people begin to not respect you. This can lead to many other problems, because people can’t get along with each other without respect. People will avoid or ignore you. People will try to argue with any side you take, just because you think you’re right and don’t show that you respect them or their opinion. Another problem is that even if you were right all the time, nobody would like it but you. Everybody wants to be right and be appreciated some of the time. The way to get on people’s good side is by showing respect and humility.
Besides losing people’s respect, we should also realize that this proud attitude is unbiblical and wicked. The Bible clearly says not to rank people. It says this in Proverbs 28:21, “To have respect of persons is not good.” Hitler brought this idea to an extreme and believed the Aryans were much better than Jews. It’s easy to see a problem in something, or some attitude, when it’s brought to the extreme, but we don’t always realize the potential problems when we do the same things on a smaller level. The problems are still there, only smaller. That’s why we must get rid of the cause—our pride.
The first step to solving a problem is to understand it. We now understand that most of these problems come from our desire to put ourselves above others. We also realize that to continue in and nourish this idea will just cause more problems. To overcome this we must constantly fight against it. We can do that by searching in God’s Word, which will tell us exactly how to fight and will encourage us. Proverbs 8:13 tells us what not to do when it says, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” Also Psalm 59:12, says, “For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.” Both of these verses teach us what to do by telling about the evils of pride. A verse which gives encouragement is Matthew 23:12, “He that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” All these verses help us to fight against our pride.
We must begin to strive to be humble right now. We cannot wait until some other time. Striving to be humble is not an activity that you wait until a convenient time to start. You must start to be humble right now. Being humble isn’t always going to be easy and sometimes won’t be possible because of our sinful and totally depraved nature, but we must always try.
People who try to be humble gain many, many benefits. Other people will have a friendlier attitude and will like you. You may not realize how important this really is. Keep in mind that you come in contact with people daily, so you want to get along with them and have effectiveness with them. Being humble will give you greater influence in your connections with people. It will also cause you to have more quality friends. Being humble also shows others that you are imitating Christ and you are being a subtle witness. A subtle witness is very effective just like Satan’s subtle witness to Eve in the garden. This subtly is a good thing when being an imitator of humble Christ.
Imitating Christ is not only good for our physical lives with getting what we want, but also is good for the soul. It is written in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” We are called to be like Christ, and when we do, we will be rewarded. Matthew 16:27: “…He shall reward every man according to his works.” When we remember to be humble like Christ, we will be rewarded in this life and the next.