Arrogant Christians: A Contradiction in Terms

Q. I'd like to know what the Bible says about some Christians who think they are better than everyone else and are filled with more hatred than your average person.

A. The Bible teaches us that these are either very immature Christians or not Christians at all.

Feelings of superiority stem from pride – i.e. trust in oneself, not God, for acceptability. The root of that pride is different for different people. Some put their hope in a sense of racial superiority. Others trust in their socioeconomic status. Still others trust in their appearance. We could go on and on.

When others don’t measure up to our self-declared standards, we judge them as unacceptable. The racist deems those of another race inferior. The arrogant rich look down on the poor. Those enjoying temporary physical beauty can arrogantly disregard or demean those of more plain appearance. In every case, the root is pride – trusting in oneself and not God for acceptability.

When it comes to harsh and judgmental ‘Christians,’ the root of pride is often performance – their sense that they behave better and therefore please God more than others. When others don’t seemingly measure up against their convenient standards of righteousness, they judge them as deficient – unacceptable. In so doing, they prove one thing: they don’t know as much about Jesus as they think they do.

The Bible teaches us that only God’s grace, not our performance, can make us acceptable in God’s sight. The Apostle Paul said it this way in his letter to the church at the ancient city of Ephesus:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8,9).

Christianity is therefore not about following rules in some vain attempt to win God’s approval; we can’t. Even our best attempts to please God fall short of his glory (Romans 3:23). In short, we’re a big, hot mess before the holy God. The moment that we find any confidence before him and others in our performance, we miss the whole point of Jesus and therefore Christianity.

True Christianity humbles us. It reminds us that before the throne of God, we are all equally unacceptable. None of us measure up to God; we all fall short.

Therefore, our only hope for acceptability is not in what we can do for God, but in what he lovingly and graciously does for us in Jesus Christ. This realization should signal the gradual death of pride. Humbly, true and growing Christians profess that they are fallen sinners like everyone else, completely without hope apart from God’s mercy and grace. They gradually cease judging and harshly condemning others, but rather offer the same hope and grace that they so graciously received from God through Jesus – showing more and more compassion, and less and less condescension, toward others. Hope this helps! PK