Saturday, August 3, 2024

The Last Days Of The Church XXVI

 If you’ve ever come across someone haughty, you know the kind of impression they can leave. It’s akin to eating a sour grape, waking up with plaque residue on your teeth, or smelling something wafting on the breeze that has gone to putrefaction. There’s a naturally visceral reaction to haughtiness that cannot be denied because it’s reminiscent of the sin that lay at the heart of the fall of man and the fall of Lucifer the Morningstar.

Although some contemporary preachers prance about insisting that haughtiness is next to godliness, the Word tells us that it’s not. It’s as offputting to God as any other sin that might be found in the camp that directly bespoils the atmosphere of righteousness the household of faith is called to dwell in.

Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Although the two are different, and there is a nuance between pride and haughtiness, they spring from the same root, grow on the same tree, and bear the same fruit. While pride is a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, haughtiness is more aptly defined as having an attitude of superiority and contempt for people perceived to be inferior in some form or fashion.

There should never be an instant in your Christian walk wherein you look down on a fellow brother or sister in Christ and consider them spiritually inferior to you because they choose not to practice some non-salvific thing that you’ve chosen to practice. Whether it’s growing a beard, wearing a necktie, putting pineapple on a pizza, or not kneeling when they pray, the practice of such things or the failure to practice such things does not make one more righteous or greater than another.

The seed of haughtiness can sprout out of anywhere at any time. The most mundane things can incline one toward looking down upon another with a haughty spirit if it is not uprooted and allowed to go unchecked.

For some as yet unexplained reason, there’s always the tendency to gravitate toward something we can point to in our Christian walk that will cause others to see us as different, special, or extraordinary. Because the wolves among us understand human nature and play to our weaknesses, there is a myriad of extra-biblical teachings and doctrine floating in the ether insisting that if you subscribe to this or that, you too will be head and shoulders above the rest, superior, and elite.

It goes without saying that such a mindset is fallow ground for disunity within the body, and the enemy is more than happy to fan the flames because he understands that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The cliques get smaller and smaller, the body grows more divided, and before you know it, you find yourself alone against the hoard, wondering where all your fellow soldiers ran off to.

We cannot over-emphasize the importance of fellowship and brotherly love within a body enough. Anything that would threaten the bond of fellowship or cause disunity must be dealt with in the light of the gospel before it can reach its desired goal: to fracture and disjoin a body to the point that it becomes useless and of no benefit to the Kingdom.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Haughtiness is the perfect delivery system for division within a church body. It also works quite well in families, especially when the biblical hierarchy God established is not adhered to. There are always consequences to disobedience, whether they manifest in the moment or years down the line.

Back in the day, the big debate in the Romanian church was about the head covering and how big the scarf needed to be in order to count as a head covering. While the younger sisters preferred the narrower head coverings, the older sisters gravitated toward the babushka look, wherein an oversized wool scarf covered the entire head. Things began to go sideways when the older sisters started to look down on the younger ones, thinking they were superior just because the piece of cloth they chose to wear on their heads was wider.

It may sound silly, in hindsight, it was, but the silliest of things can open the door to a haughty spirit, and if given latitude, it can metastasize to the point of perceiving those who are your fellow members in Christ with contempt. This seemingly silly thing was responsible for church splits and all manner of harbored animosity in people’s hearts because no one would budge. In misguided attempts to defend their wife’s conviction, mature men were at each other’s throats, ichaboding like there was no tomorrow because the other brother’s wife didn’t see it the same way. Everyone thought they were right, and in their quest to prove how right they were, they dismissed God’s counsel and ignored the order He established.

It turns out little foxes can spoil the vine, not just big ones. Unsurprisingly, the Bible was right again. There seems to be a pattern emerging, but it may just be my overactive imagination. Then again, it may just be reality staring us in the face.

As long as they are allowed to spread unchecked, even the smallest of issues can give way to a haughty spirit, and the most tertiary of topics can become unbridgeable chasms in fellowship seemingly overnight.

Not only is a united body stronger in defending against the enemy and his attacks from without when it is of one mind with Christ as head of the church, but any untoward, unbiblical, or ungodly teaching attempting to creep in can also be identified, isolated, and excised before it can cause harm.

Guard your heart, always. For the love of your own soul and the love of the brethren, resist the urge to allow a spirit of haughtiness to find a welcoming adobe in your heart. Not only will you spare yourself much heartache, but you will also strengthen your bond of fellowship and brotherhood with your co-laboring brothers and sisters in Christ by doing so. This is a task of utmost urgency.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

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