Romans 12:3 – He’s Great, Not Us
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Truth to Learn
We must make an honest appraisal of ourselves.
Behind the Words
Paul starts off this verse with, “For”, implying that this verse is directly connected to the previous one in thought and intent.
In this verse Paul makes one of his familiar play-on-words with the word phroneō, which refers to “the mind, thinking, or a mindset.” Literally, Paul says that each of us should “not over think ourselves beyond what we ought to think, but to think toward sound thinking.”
The word translated “soberly” is sōphroneō, which means “to be of a sound mind” or “to be mentally self-controlled.”
The Greek word translated “as” is hōs, which is a tiny word with numerous nuances of interpretation. We could interpret its use here as, “in recognition of the fact that.”
Meaning Explained
In the previous verse Paul told us we should be transformed by renewing, or renovating, our minds. That is, we need to completely change the way that we think.
We in the United States, like the Romans of Paul’s time, tend to think of ourselves as a little bit better than others because we are part of a successful, powerful, influential country. And we tend to measure our own personal worth by our position, our income level, and our heritage. Couple that with the fact that we as Christians think of ourselves as better than the pagans and other unbelievers because we know the truth about God and they don’t. In other words, we are very proud of ourselves. It’s likely that the Jewish Christians in Rome felt exactly the same way about themselves.
Now that Paul has politely admonished us to offer ourselves up to God, recognizing that He is our master and we are His slaves, he tells us to quit being so arrogant! Of course, Paul is not as blunt as that, but in essence that’s what he’s saying. He gives us a guideline as to how we ought to think; “in recognition of the fact that God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Everything we have and are has come directly from God. Even the measure of faith that we have, as small as it may be, has its source in God alone. Do you see that? This Christian faith which we have was measured out to us by God. We didn’t come up with it by ourselves.
When we recognize that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him” (Ephesians 1:4), we must submit to the fact that all things are under God’s control. And no matter how great we think we are as a nation, as a church, or as a person, we must recognize that we are nothing more than sinners deserving of Hell, who have been saved by God’s grace, not by anything of our own doing. Though we are adopted children of the King of Kings, we are at our best when we recognize that we are lowly slaves of our Master who bought us body, soul, and spirit, and paid for us with the blood of His own son.
Application
So – don’t waste your effort thinking about how great you are! Instead, think about how great our God is!
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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