Anyone who calls themself a Christian has a responsibility to be like Jesus. But nearly nobody is really like Jesus. To become like Jesus, one must suffer in life, learning humility, selflessness, and sacrificial love. Yet Jesus had a life full of joy, seen as a party guy who dined with “sinners.”
In the first century AD, the church was devoted to one another, to eating and praying together, having all things in common sharing everything with one another “with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people” -Acts 2:46-47. How did the Church get to where it is today? In one word: pride.
Pride was not absent when the first church grew. Stephen, “a man full of God’s grace and power,” and who performed miracles and signs, gave a long speech to the high priest of the temple, preaching to the Jewish leaders like preaching to the choir.
“When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” -Proverbs 10:19.
The apostle Paul had his own history of pride from when he was still called Saul:
[Saul] talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. -Acts 9:29-30
He was still Saul, and he needed to learn how to be humble. So, the disciples sent him to his home where he would learn humility.
The body is of the earth. It needs taming. In the wilderness of the world the body has learned to defend itself for survival, and this defensiveness is in the design of our nervous system. But in Jesus we die daily, therefore our fear behaviors must change. The lamp of the body is the eye. And pride blinds that eye.
This is the call for church leaders around the world: Ask of the Lord, “Humble me,” so that your eye will be cleared to be able to see, and you will be able to discern how pride behaves, because pride is blinding. Do not be like the leaders of whom Isaiah wrote about in Isaiah 42:
18Listen, you deaf ones;
look, you blind ones, that you may see!
19Who is blind but My servant,
or deaf like the messenger I am sending?
Who is blind like My covenant partner,
or blind like the servant of the LORD?
20Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch.
Though your ears are open, you do not hear.”21The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness,
to magnify His law and make it glorious.
22But this is a people plundered and looted,
all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons.
They have become plunder with no one to rescue them,
and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”
23Who among you will pay attention to this?
Who will listen and obey hereafter?
24Who gave Jacob up for spoil,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the LORD,
against whom we have sinned?
They were unwilling to walk in His ways,
and they would not obey His law.
25So He poured out on them His furious anger
and the fierceness of battle.
It enveloped them in flames,
but they did not understand;
it consumed them,
but they did not take it to heart.
Because of hypocrisy within the Church, wickedness has multiplied. Jesus even gave us a prophecy about it:
“…many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and deceive many. Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.” -Matthew 24:10-13
Get back to the greatest commandments. Love God and love one another. There is no fear in love. Love perseveres. But in order to truly love unconditionally, pride must become humble.