The Pointing Finger...

I often try to put myself in the shoes of someone I might be speaking to. I don't always do it perfectly, but it's something I'm working on. It's not an inherent talent, but rather a learned habit from previous moments of self inflicted embarrassment, division and ill aimed points. It's also been learned from being on the receiving end of the comments and misguided judgments of others. In other words, I've had the experience of being on both sides of conversations that didn't go well and I learned from them...

...But there are times when I read comments or commentaries from Christian brothers and sisters and still at times even my own - written in haste and begging to be revised, that seem to lack an element necessary in my own mind at all times if we're to continually replicate Christ's spirit ...

... Humility.

"humility  noun

Definition of humility: freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble." - Merriam Webster

"humility  noun

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc." - Dictionary.com

Before I say anything further, I realize and fully acknowledge that I have no advantage over any other in Christ based on God's standards and that the ONLY advantage I even have over anyone not yet saved and reconciled to their desiring Creator...

... is Christ.

"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard."Romans 3:23 (NLT)

Even as a follower of Christ, in unguarded moments, if found walking in my own power and spirit, I have every ability and opportunity to be humanly offensive. It's true that I can say things in haste that are unnecessarily sharp, I can be unreasonable, unbecoming, and even unintentionally offensive, ... but if I'm instead consciously abiding in Christ, having His mind and living in His spirit, those things will likely be very far from me.

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross." Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT) 

We were and still are sinners based on our own performance in life. Having accepted Christ's sacrifice, we're no longer condemned for those sins because Jesus took that penalty for our crimes against God in our place. We're set free because Jesus willingly stepped down from ultimate glory and majesty to die that shameful and horrific death for us. Consequently, we in buried in Christ have nothing to crow about except Jesus. If Jesus had taken the attitude that we were unworthy - as so many other people might be seen in the world around us, so low in value compared to Himself (Himself, being God), we would still be destined to die the horrific death that we would still be deserving.

My point? We need to take care in how we think about anyone else and also how we care for and talk to them - regardless of how low they may have fallen on worldly humanity's social register ... because on God's register we're all the same - still sinners ... except for one singular, defining difference -...

...Jesus.

Jesus didn't think more highly of Himself and neither should we. I'm talking about living humility, not the kind worn on one's sleeve in abject dismal suffering, or some canned humility served with a practiced smile, but a living, serving, attitude of humility that acts. After all, if Jesus' humility didn't result in a living, active, serving attitude and life, we'd still be rightly condemned - and there are others out there that still are. We need to see them. 

Judgmental pointing fingers and attitudes don't draw people to Christ, they're symptoms of an arrogance that offends and pushes people away and something Jesus reviled in the Pharisees. They're symptoms that might be saying that someone's forgetting that "we" are "they" in God's eyes and they're the polar opposite of the magnitude of gratitude that we should have. If the pointing finger comes out, even just in thought. it might as well be pointing back at us, because the only difference that might possibly be found between "us" and "them" in God's eyes...

...is Christ.

Humility ... it's humble, it serves, it loves, it forgives and it saves the most wretched - Jesus proved that. And because it does, we're free...

"No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."  Micah 6:8 (NLT)