Jesus had just healed a psychotic man, and the religious teachers spoke against him. Jesus responded ...
"How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter..." (Matthew 12) Later, he speaks similarly, "... what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultry, fornication, theft, false witness, and slander." (Matthew 15:18-19)
In our quantative analysis of NT vice words, this is our seventh group of words, and like the ones before, we find approximately fifty NT references. Here I group together arrogance, pride, conceit, self exaltation, bullying, partiality, favoritism, and discrimination. Fourteen Greek word families are involved (see chart below). Eight of the references come from the gospels.
Do we find a belief in superiority that does not lead to abuse? Admonition against pride, conceit, and favoritism is one of the strongest and most pervasive teachings in the New Testament in the area of human relations.
- The underlying psychological state for arrogance is superiority.
- Superiority requires inferiority of the other.
- Inferiority is aided by labeling the other…as inferior, as immoral or sinful, as alien or foreign, abnormal or unnatural.
- Which allows people to feel justified in racism (e.g. inequitable allocation of resources), exploitation of the poor (e.g. low wage, no benefit jobs), xenophobia (mistreatment of foreigners, inhumane treatment of "illegals"), sexism, sexual harassment, and application of legal or social exclusion against people based on their sexual identity or orientation.
How would your world change if you relinquished these labels
in your orientation toward others?
How would your relationships change if you confronted these attitudes whenever you encountered exemplifications of superiority in words and behaviors?
All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' 1 Peter 5:5 / James 4:6 / Proverbs 3:34
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of God ... 2 Timothy 3:1-4
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own... 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:25-26
For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Corinthians 4:7
In the particular expression of favoritism (we would call "discrimination,"), it is noteworthy that Peter, Paul, and James, key church leaders who shared some contentious interaction, arrived at a very similar expression of a fundamental ethical principle ... there is no partiality with God. (see article 11b).
(1) I highly recommend the audio blog Lectio: Guided Bible Readings, Book of James, from Seattle Pacific University, available at: https://blog.spu.edu/lectio/?s=james
Bibliography:
Bauer, W. (1979). A Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Second Edition ed.).
(W. F. Gingrich, Trans.) Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
NASB-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English. (1987). (A. Marshall, Trans.) Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan.
NCBC - North Clackamas Bible Community. (2010, October
25). Vice and Virtue Lists from the New Testament. Retrieved from Bible
Study Resources from NCBC:
https://bcresources.net/2200000-nts-frg12-lit-frm-vv-lists-nt-art-bcrx/
Renn, S. D. (Ed.). (2005). Expository Dictionary of
Biblical Words. Peabody, Massachusetts, USA: Hendrickson Publishers.
Thomas, R. L. (Ed.). (1981). New American Standard
Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
