Think Carefully

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

THINK CAREFULLY

Rom 12:3-8

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

NIV

For by the divine influence that is given to Paul, or grace, we are told not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Of course, he was originally speaking to those believers in the church in Rome, but this same warning certainly applies to us as well. It is interesting to watch how some believers are overcome by boasting about all that they did, which they profess is for the Lord. However, if we boast at all about our comings and goings, or all that we do, then we are not in service to the Lord, but rather in service to ourselves seeking the praise of men. In these post-modern times, it has become too easy to be caught up in using various forms of social media to boast. It seems strange that with this social media, such as Facebook, all our posts are generally seen by those who are our media friends, who in the case of us believers are usually many other believers. So then why would we post every time we do something regarding a religious nature, such as our part in the body of Christ. Although this type of behavior of informing all our friends every time we do something that we think is for the Lord, is boastful, it is only a symptom of an internal problem. Paul is talking about thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. It does not matter if we boast outwardly or not, although we should not boast about anything other than Christ. But it is in our thought life that we could have this over-exaggerated opinion of our importance without ever saying anything to anyone. There could be another symptom that causes someone to boast, and that is the feeling of inferiority, in which this type of thinking results in the need to make oneself look better than one actually is, still the result is still boasting.   However, it would seem that what is in our hearts, or mind simply seeps out through our mouths without giving any concern about looking boastful. We will get to the rest of this passage about these various gifts, but in light of them being gifts, we should first note that all that we are, and do is a result of the gift of God, and not of ourselves, so then why would we boast about ourselves. We also have to be careful not to be judgmental of those who do boast, for in our judging them, we are thinking more highly of ourselves than we should, and at the same time we must be aware not to boast about our humility before God and men, but that is exactly how we should think and live, in full humility before God, and humbly serving the others in the body of Christ. James tells us that if we humble ourselves before the Lord, he will lift us up. Of course, that should not be our reason to humble ourselves before the Lord. Still, this is all about the Lord, and nothing about us, so we need to be careful how we think.