On one of my foreign trips, I visited the home of a lady with a medical professional. The home needed refurbishment and was situated in an old and poor part of the town. The lady herself showed all the signs of someone who had always been of very modest means. The visit was brief and pleasant, and he had obviously known her for a long time. A few days later I found out that the lady was actually the mother of my new friend. His professional attire and his Oxford-type accent had left no clues that he had grown up in that house. His parents, by faith and hard work, had poured all they had into his future and would take nothing in return; they were happy to stay as they were.
Those who occupy the lower echelons of society are easily forgotten by those above them. Many in the middle classes are working so hard that they have neither time nor inclination to consider those beneath them. But to be fair, I would say that they probably do not see themselves as being that far up from the bottom themselves.
Christians are as susceptible to prideful attitudes as anyone else. The devil is well versed in convincing believers that others are poor because they are lazy. I have heard many a good Christian say, “As the Bible says, ‘If any will not work, neither let him eat.’” Though not wrong in all cases, I do believe that their use of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 is usually cancelled out by Matthew 7:1— “Judge not lest you be judged.”
Humility is the hallmark of a Christian. We emulate the attitudes of our Lord who “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). To look down on others for reasons of class is to denigrate Jesus, and to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3).
Paul pulls our thinking straight when he says:
“Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation” (Romans 12:16).
John Staiger
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