To Encourage You

Romans 12:3 “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

When you think of the word “sober,” what is the first thing that comes to your mind?  If you’re like me, I think of drinking alcohol.  Basically, to be sober is to not be drunk.  Actually, the word refers to a condition of being under self-control, something that a person who is drunk on alcohol does not have.  Interesting, then, how the word sober is used in the Scripture above.  Here it’s not referring to how much we drink but how we think.  It tells us that we can lack self-control in our thought life. Specifically, it’s referring to how we think about our self.  It’s telling us that we can be drunk in our thoughts about ourself. 

So have you ever thought about this?  If the Bible is warning us about it, then it’s because we have a problem with this way of thinking, for God doesn’t waste His words in the way He speaks to us.  He’s telling us that we can have too much to think.  Specifically, He’s telling us that we can think about ourself too much.  We can think too highly about ourself.  And isn’t that the constant drumbeat we hear all around us.  We live in a society that seemingly promotes self-esteem as the highest virtue.  We are constantly told that we deserve this or that wonderful thing because of how wonderful we are.  We are encouraged to revel in our own strength, beauty, and gifts.  It’s how we’re to always think about ourself.  Isn’t that the message? 

The result, unfortunately, is a total lack of sobriety in the way we think.  This way of thinking can even seep into a Christian’s life regarding how they view their own spiritual gifts. That’s what the verse above is referring to when it talks about “the measure of faith God has assigned.”  It’s a temptation to be proud about whatever gifts God has given us, rather than view what we’ve received with humility. It’s not that we are great because of the gifts we’ve received.  No, we’ve received these gifts because God is great.  As Paul said in his rebuke to the Corinthian church which had a real problem in this area: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1 Corinthians 4:7)?

And that’s the truth about everything we’ve received, whether it be our spiritual gifts, physical gifts, physical traits, wealth, social standing, or anything else that we claim as “ours.”  All of it, no matter what it is, is a gift from God. We came into this world naked, and we’ll leave the same way – but while we are here it is God that should receive the glory in everything, for hasn’t He told us that “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do (including the ways in which you think about yourself), do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  

Such a good reminder, something we all need to hear, for “drunkenness” isn’t something someone should take pride in, including when that “drunkenness” is a lack of self-control in the way we think.