Think With Sound Judgment
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Romans 12:3
This is one of the more straight-forward verses in Romans 12. Paul warns of the danger of pride motivating us in ministry even as we exercise spiritual gifts that were given to us by Christ. Every ability, whether it be natural talent, skills we have acquired, or spiritual gifts given directly by the Triune God are not our own. Everything that we have is a gift of God’s grace whether he created us with those gifts or endowed us with spiritual gifts at conversion or later. It is silly to be proud of something given to you as if you earned it or deserved it. It is by God’s grace.
Why do we fall into this trap. Sometimes we are self-deceived and believe our own press release. There are a lot of jokes about “participation trophies” that are given out to Millennials and Generation Z children. Before we mock them too much, we need to ask ourselves who thought that up and started given them out in the first place? The point being, when we exalt and affirm everyone equally, we unintentionally communicate that effort and ability don’t matter. You just need to show up and you will get rewarded. Worse, the recipient himself might think that he and the star player are equally skilled. Lebron James and I have equal worth and value, but I submit to you that he is the better basketball player. For me to think that I am as skilled (or ever was) is not reality.
Sometimes thinking too much of myself is masking my insecurities. I feel a sense of being deficient or less than other, so I compensate by tooting my own horn. We inflate our value, worth, and abilities to try to cause others to believe what we are not so sure of ourselves. So, bragging is compensating for our insecurity. The antidote to this is not going to the other extreme and putting ourselves down in constant self-deprecation. When we ignore God’s good gifts in our life and downplay what he has given us, we are not being humble but disparaging God. Imagine giving a gift to a child and he just chucks it over his shoulder and say what a horrible, worthless present it is. He isn’t being humble; he is being ungrateful. God has given us various abilities, talents, and gifts and for us to ignore them or speak ill of them is not humility.
What is the answer? He says that we are to think about ourselves soberly or with sound judgment. Sober here isn’t related to drinking although we use it as a synonym sometimes to mean we have not partaken of alcohol. However, sober means to have clear thinking and sound judgment, something too much alcohol causes one to lose. Paul tells us to be realistic. We aren’t the best in the world, but we are not insignificant worms either. God has given us some good gifts and we need to recognize them and be grateful for them without comparing them to others.
We also recognize that God not only gives people different gifts, but he gives them different amounts of gifts. This means that although he has given you the gift of teaching that doesn’t mean you are going to be the best teacher in the school. God may have given you the gift of leadership but that doesn’t mean he has equipped you to lead a fortune 500 company. Maybe he wants to use you in the small classroom or lead a small group. God doesn’t give you everything you want but he gives you everything you need to glorify him where he has placed you. God gives the gifts and God gives the assignments and the gifts will match the assignment. We need not be envious or jealous of others if God has given them greater gifts or a larger ministry. Those people are where he placed them, and you are where he has placed you.
