October 28, 2008: A Reason To Be Humble

One of the reasons we ought to be humble is that others have done so much better than we with far less help, far fewer resources, and far greater challenges.

A friend told me he has a spiritual fantasy: he wants to be called upon in the Final Judgment to "rise and condemn" adulterers who defend themselves by saying they were married to bad people. My friend was married to a bad person too, but did not consider that grief a justification for sexual license. Maybe at the throne of God he will rise to judge, joining the Queen of Sheba and the men of Nineveh (Matthew 12:41-42) who will condemn certain Judeans. (Sheba valued the wisdom of mere Solomon, and the Ninevites repented at the preaching of mere Jonah, while the Judeans rejected Someone Far Greater.) On the day when all souls are rendering account for deeds done in the body, and some adulterous creep cries out, "But I was married to a shrew!" God can say, "Well, concerning that, let us hear a word from my servant Doug..."

I can understand my friend's fantasy because I relate so well to it. For example, one of the reasons I find former InterVarsity President Gordon MacDonald so insufferable is because he cheated on a good and faithful wife - his partner in ministry! - while I stayed faithful to a hostile and frigid apostate. So, MacDonald, what do you suppose a guy like you has to teach a guy like me about Christian virtue?

But such fantasies receive a hard rebuke when we consider all the people who could rise up in judgment against us. The line of my just condemners would be long. Sometimes, for example, I sin by being discouraged, and in my spirit stare blankly at cinder-block walls of hindrance and captivity. Quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada could be called upon to rise (or in her case, sit) in judgment against me, saying, "How dare you be discouraged! At least you've got arms and legs that work - I can't even brush my own teeth!"

Or take the sin of indulgence and the contrasting virtue of generosity. If I hear one more WMBI preacher begging money one minute, and talking about his Alaskan or Caribbean cruise the next, I'm going to scream bloody judgment. At such times I feel a dark temptation to pray like the Pharisee in Luke 18:11: "God, I thank thee that I am not as other [preachers]." But then there come to mind the widow of Zarephath, who shared what she thought was her and her son's last meal with the prophet Elijah, and the widow at the temple in Jerusalem, who gave her last two pennies in the offering plate. I imagine these women rising in judgment against me, saying, "Yes, Paul, do tell us your great story of faithful stewardship of meager resources."

God sets us as examples to one another. When we are tempted to sin, and justify that sin because our situation is so tough, let us call to mind victors who have had it so much tougher. And when we do well, and because of doing well come to despise those who fail, let us call to mind the real heroes, the ones who probably would not find our moral accomplishments all that impressive.