Humility

Do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.

Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware… (Romans 11:18-20)

In this passage, Paul is addressing Gentile Christians who might be tempted to boast about their salvation, telling the Jews, “Yes, you may have been considered God’s people once, but now it’s us who are God’s people.”

And Paul tells them, “Don’t boast that you are better than them. You are only part of God’s people because of grace. Jesus is the root and by his grace, he sustains you in your faith.

“You’re not part of God’s people because you are such wonderful people. You are only part of God’s people because you realized your weakness and your need for salvation, and you put your faith in Jesus.

“And by his grace, God welcomed you into his family. And if that’s the case, what are you boasting about?”

I don’t think many of us boast our superiority to the Jews. But how many of us boast, if only in our own minds, about our superiority to other Christians?

We’re more mature. We know more. We have all these gifts. God uses us. But these other Christians…not so much.”

One thing that amazes me about the apostle Peter is something he said in one of his letters:

To those who have received a faith equal to ours… (2 Peter 1:1)

Peter didn’t say, “I’m an apostle. I’m superior to you. You need to respect me.”

Rather he said, “your faith is equal to ours.”

Why? Because he recognized he didn’t support the root, but that the root supported him.

His salvation came not from his own righteousness, but “through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:1b)

Let us always keep that heart of humility, never looking down on other Christians, but treating them as people whose faith is equal to ours in the sight of God.