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Looking Good

The sociology professor was trying to help her students recognize the wide variety of roles in society. It was easy to assign high value to some of them. They are rewarded with wide influence and generous compensation. Others are seen to be of moderate value (I'm talking about the roles, here, not the people in them). Some roles are valued so lowly, you'd get the impression they shouldn't exist at all. On slow news days, the media can always find a politician to make a comment about the need to "eliminate the criminal element" in some specific location, or to "wipe out homelessness" in the downtown, or to "get rid of gangsters" in the suburbs.

In the classroom discussion, the question was raised about the place that the people of "skid row" have in the broader society. There was some lively debate. One of the most controversial points that was put forward was: "The people of skid row serve society by giving others someone to look down on so they can say 'at least I'm not like them!'"

Whatever you think of that comment, it does highlight our tendency to make ourselves look better by pointing at others who are less worthy than we see ourselves to be. Sometimes, when I talk to people about their spiritual life, I can detect when their conscience is pricked. The evidence is that they begin comparing themselves favourably with others. "I might not come to church often, but I go more frequently than so-and-so." "I might not spend as much time in spiritual disciplines as I should, but I do more than somebody else." "I might not be as mature as you'd expect, but I'm more mature than the other person."

Paul writes about the need for Christians to be built up together until we reach unity in the faith and become spiritually mature, which he defines as measuring up to "the fulness of Christ." Jesus provides the standard by which we evaluate our spiritual progress, not someone else whom we choose specifically because he or she is less mature than we are trying to represent ourselves as being.(See Ephesians 4:11-16)

Paul, himself, whom some see as the most highly developed Christian in the church, did not see himself as perfect, but rather than puff himself up by looking at others who were less mature, he wrote that he continually strove to fulfill Christ's purposes in his life. I'll use his own words: "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained." (Philippians 3:12-16)

The natural impulse to make ourselves look good by diverting attention to others is strong. But it really works against us. The moment we start comparing ourselves favourably to others, we betray the fact that we are trying to represent ourselves as being more spiritually mature than we really are. Anyone who is biblically aware will catch onto what we are up to and our attempt to look good makes us look bad.

If you want to really look good to others, "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus..."

Ron Hughes
© December 2007