Arrogance and Selfishness

Something to keep in mind while reading: Since Threnody's post is her opinion of Christians, based on her experience with them, the Bible has very little to say on the subject. Thus my post will contain very few Bible verses (if any) and take a different route in our defense.

Today's post is about arrogance and it takes an interesting view of the word. I say interesting because arrogance is generally about being SELF-centered, while everything that Threnody states as being a problem is not necessarily centered on God or others or self.

Arrogance is defined this way:

offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride

The adjective form of the word is defined as follows:
having or showing an exaggerated opinion of one's own importance, merit, ability, etc; conceited; overbearingly proud

Both of these definitions make it quite clear that there are two very important factors to go into arrogance. One, it must be about yourself. And two, it cannot be deserved. It MUST be an exaggeration. Not just pride, OVERBEARING pride.

Obviously, Threnody is of the opinion that Christians are wrong and that the Bible is not true. Therefore, her opinion about them being arrogant is logical. But if she is wrong and Christians DO possess the truth, it is NOT arrogant to say such. This puts her position at odds with itself. In deploring Christians for such "arrogance" in assuming that they are right, she is displaying the same kind of "arrogance" in assuming that they cannot be right.

Now, to be fair, as if Christians possessed the truth and did not share it, it would be selfish, so if Threnody is right and says nothing, that too would not be kind. It would be the witness in a murder case not saying that he knew who the murderer was because he feared or disliked the consequences. To keep silence when you cannot be assured of anyone else ever speaking up is not a kindness.

Moving along, I don't know ANY Christians who say that THEY know what is best for everyone on the planet. They say the BIBLE has the answers. Do we know some things? Yes, but only because it's in the Bible. Normally, our statements begin with a "God says" or "The Bible says." I've yet to meet a Christian who claims something is true because THEY said it. Therefore, a Christian's authority is not connected with his good opinion of himself, but rather on his good opinion of the Bible and God.

I also don't know a Christian who says that they cannot be wrong. I've been wrong many times, and will be wrong many more times. What isn't wrong is the Bible. When the Bible says something is evil, it's evil. And like a child who says to their sibling, "Dad told us not to do that" the authority does not come from the child. And it doesn't require arrogance for the child to say, "Don't do that; Dad said not to." Even if the child is WRONG about what they thought dad said; it STILL doesn't necessitate arrogance.


Now the opposite side of things. Are Christians arrogant? Sadly yes, many of us are. Usually, it has nothing to do with WHAT we are doing/saying, but rather HOW we are doing/saying it. Should Christians be arrogant? Superior? Elitist? Absolutely not. There is no justification of it whatsoever. We are called to be humble, meek, gentle, kind, loving, etc. Those are not words that coincide with arrogance. We are not Christians because we were elite or special. We are special because we are Christians. The difference there is that one is ME and one is GIVEN to me. I am not loved because of who I am; I am loved IN SPITE of who I am.

So all Christians would do well to remember that they were on the same path, in the same boat, and it was of none of their own doing that they are not anymore. An old friend of mine just got shipped over to, I think, Afghanistan. He hadn't been there long, a few days at most. He got out of one of the military vehicles, which a very short time later, exploded, killing some soldiers.

That was the state of every single Christian. We were going along, thinking that we weren't in a bad place, trusting in our training and our abilities. We never saw it coming, but if God hadn't pulled us out, we'd be dead. There is very little so humbling as knowing that you were just saved from certain doom, a doom that you were entirely unaware of or too stubborn to acknowledge.

Arrogance is best counter-acted by remembering what we are, and realizing that we could not change it then and cannot be rid of it now on our own. When we see that, rather than feeling superior to everyone else, we ought to feel an overwhelming sense of sympathy and love for everyone, like an orphan who has been adopted and given the best home imaginable and then goes back to visit all the other orphans. It isn't arrogance to be aware of what you have; it's arrogance to believe that you deserved it and it's selfishness to not want to share it.