“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3)

Paul wrote that the church would not be able to serve its purpose if everyone was the same. He used the analogy of the human body being made of all hands, as well as others. Certainly the church needs a variety of people to accomplish the global mission of making Christ Jesus known to all. But here in today’s verse we also learn of a characteristic that no church needs; arrogance. We all know the type, those who have been there and done that, and the no one has ever done it better than me people. As Christians, we are called to love all and encourage all to find their best version of themselves in Jesus. But encountering the arrogant natured people requires much grace (and sometimes a little bit of space between you.) The reason arrogance is so difficult for us to handle is because it is so plainly unpleasant listening to people go on and on about themselves. But past this general annoyance, we know that biblically we are nothing without Christ Jesus. Paul was always very quick to point this out in his letters. We have accomplished nothing to boast about in front of our Lord and Savior. We may have done something noteworthy from a human perspective, but God created the universe and everything in it – including each one of us. God will always love us, He may even be pleased by something we did for Him (in His name), but we will never surpass our creator. Nor should we ever desire to do so. When we show arrogance, we are effectively saying that we are at the top – and not God. So today, be kind to the arrogant and much grace needed types. Because putting them down is just a sneaky way of elevating yourself.