No Deceit in Christ

 

 

For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

—Galatians 6:3

 

         In the previous verse, Galatians 6:2, Paul gave instruction that we are to help others carry their burden. He says in today’s verse that if we think we are too important to stoop down and help others with their burdens, then we are deceived about our own importance. 

         Our self-importance—how we value ourselves—profits us nothing. None of us are anything of ourselves. None of us have any good excuse for not helping restore our fellow believers. This was one of the blatant hard-hearted sins of the Pharisees. 

         This verse in the Amplified Bible Classic Edition reads, “If any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another’s load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.”

         Most people are rarely deluded and deceived by someone else’s arrogance and pride. The trouble is the difficulty we have in recognizing our own. We have the power to delude and cheat ourselves or to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s estimation of our worth in Jesus. Our true sense of worth is found in Christ—in the righteousness that He alone has imparted to us. There is no deceit in Christ. So we choose to not be deceived.  We choose not to think that we are above anyone else. 

         We fulfill the Law of Christ—we reveal the true worth of His love in us—when we are not too important or too prideful to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to help others carry their burdens. Jesus had no lofty ambition. He never asked anyone about their sin before he healed them. The sin he addressed was the hard-heartedness of those who judged others harshly by the Old Testament Law instead of by the Law of His love. We are to be one-minded with Jesus. We are to love with His love without condemnation and hypocrisy. 

         “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself (Philippians 2:1-3).

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

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