John 9 | Humility
December 9th, John 9
You ever felt like a 2nd class Christian? You still struggle with sinful tendencies. You promise you won't do it again, but you keep finding yourself stumbling. You look at strong Christians and just feel even more guilty for how weak you feel. Struggle to pray, struggle to understand the Bible. You look at all the extroverted Christians and think God can use them, but you, no your too quite, too shy, God can't use me. Maybe try as you might to trust God with the pain and darkness in your life, you keep medicating it with other sinful things... even though you know it's not the answer. And it just drives you into deeper anger and deeper bitterness.
Or maybe you feel sorta on the fringe. Like you don't quite fit into Christian culture... and maybe you don't fit into God's family? Like a spiritual outcast.
If you have ever felt like a 2nd class Christian, God has something to say to you in this text.
Have you ever felt like a 1st class Christian? The problem with 1st class Christians is they don't usually see it. But maybe, by God's grace, you have seen it. You know the depths of theology and yet you find within your heart pride. Maybe your outspoken and articulate, and you find yourself looking down on other "weaker" Christians. You ever sat by someone at church that smelled like weed or smoke? Or if a homeless man came in here, how would we respond? All of our hearts are prone to this... judgment.
Maybe you love the power that comes with being a "spiritual leader" a "person to look up to" and you actually just use God as a stepping stone to get what you really love... admiration and power. Maybe you've seen some of that in your heart...
If you have ever felt like a 1st class Christian, God has something to say to you in this text.
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
-John 9:25
The proper recognition of what God has done for us leads to a humility that doesn’t make us think we are 1st class Christians, walking with an ego and pride like the Pharisees. But that humility also protects us from thinking we are a 2nd class Christian, always walking with a limp. In the Kingdom of God we are all on even ground.
We need humility to not be 1st class, and we need humility, to know we aren't 2nd class.
Reflection Question:
Are you more prone to be a 1st class or 2nd class Christian? How can humility counteract that?
Killing pride,
Josh.