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humorist-workshop
What does this bible verse mean?
"For if a man, think of himself as something when he is nothing, he has deceived himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another."
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Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
II know visuals help me understand things so imagine a Hot air balloon being filled with hot air. Once it is full of hot air, unless tethered to the ground, what will it do? Its rises. The man or woman, any human who thinks them selves as something means they think they are better than others. And another way people label such people is as being full of hot air, and that again means, hot air rises so all they do is try to make themselves appear to be above all others, better than them. Usually it doesn't stop at thinking only but the words that come out of their mouth. So they will talk 'big' about themselves, rattling off a list of all they know, credentials, and compliment themselves in front of others. At the same time, he/she is usually berating, name calling, saying terrible things to make other people feel much lower and beneath him/her. So this verse is instruction to not look for false glory from others when you have not proven it through your work ethics and also how you handle yourself as a person. What this is saying when compared to a job is that a company boss who tells others to do something a certain way, is not above his work force. Yes someone needs to lead but if he has no problem stepping out of his leader role to work alongside his workers, that is a good boss and he can feel happy with himself (rejoicing in himself alone and not seeking praise from his workers for helping them, all he sees is a team effort and he is part of the team.
Another verse I am reminded of is John 12:43 "For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Well, who doesn't like recieving a compliment which I equate to sometimes being a praise. It's okay to love recieving compliments or praise from others. What is wrong is when the person in question does not live a Godly praiseworthy life so they fabricate a persona that they represent themselves with and actively go about seeking the praise of other humans rather than wanting to get Gods praise, the praise of their heavenly father. I don't think we can imagine God praising such a person when they are holding themselves to the standards of men rather than God. A bible study on line on that verse mentioned that.
A couple of my own examples of running into people who thought themselves better than others, and I will keep this to just relationships, starts with my ex. He was never satisfied or happy with anything I did. In complaint of how the kitchen was organized by me, I asked him after several shuffles to write out exactly where he wanted things to be and followed that list exactly. All along he said I was so stupid and idiotic for an adult and kept saying how he was so much more intelligent. So thats why I had him make the list. All I wanted was peace in the house. After following his list and having him inspect the kitchen, he'd already forgotton about the list and yelled about how I was such an idiot to have put it together that way.
After the divorce, I dated but was smarter now and knew I did not want a man who thought he was better than everyone else when in actuality that is not and never will be true. One guy seems real nice for the first 3 dates. For the 4th, I was invited to his home as he was cooking dinner for me. As soon as I entered the home, he said please excuse the terrible mess (his home was immaculate) but I have a lazy (and here he inserted racial slurs) of a maid. I will need to fire her. I quietly ate dinner but never ever got back together with him. He thought he was better than a maid, better than another race and that was enough for me to know he was as bad as my ex. I was not about to jump from frying pan into the fire.
I also personally believe the following: If I don't think of myself as above anyone, I am more likely to have empathy for a person, no matter if even they think I am the bad guy erroneously. What I do is imagine myself in their shoes, or another way to think of it is how it would feel to be living their life. (this takes having a great imagination) And so instead of feeling slighted or treated badly or whatever, If I see things through their perspectives and through their eyes, I understand how it is possible for them to feel resentment to me. This is why after 3 different occasions when 3 different family members, mom, dad and a sister stopped talking to me for months and one almost a year, I understood how twisted thinkig could have led them down that path, I didn't try to prove my innocense, just gave them time to get over it, and it was a long wait, but eventually we were on friendly loving terms again.
Another time, I didn't feel offended or think of myself as better or above another was when going to our church food bank which was located right next door to our church offices, in a separate building from our church. The pastor approached me to tell me the church secretary was very upset with me and that it had to do with her daughter and a young childrens program my husband and I led. You might want to go talk with her." he said. I said of course I would. I had no idea he was eavesdropping to see how it went. Apparently she had heard other women in church talking a totallyk fabricated story of how terribly I was treating her child in class. She had no reason to believe that there were church goers who would stoop so low as to try to create trouble for me because they didn't like my personality. Heck, I don't like lots of personalities out there, but I don't try to act like children and act meanly toward them. I had her tell me her story, put myself in her shoes, and could see how easily I would have believed the same thing if It was about my kids. Before long, without having to say, I never did that to your child, I was hugging her and crying as hard as she was, because I knew as a mother how much it would hurt to think my child was singled out in class to be treated badly. Once we stopped crying, I told her the truth, that her daughter was one of the best children in my class, always friendly, loving, never acting up and I wished all the kids in the class could be duplicates of her. It was my true sentiment. Words are cheap, they can be lies, but she picked up on the true energy behind my words and from that day forward, we were on a friendly basis again. The pastor caught up with me as I was putting my food into my car and thanked me for doing what I had done.
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I take it as something like… A man shouldn’t think highly of himself when he doesn’t do anything for what he has only when he does work for what he has should he be happy.
A longer explanation, I don’t know what chapter this is in but I think of it as something maybe like a man has slaves who do his work for him so he shouldn’t think highly of himself but when he actually does his own work is when he should be happy.
Does that make any sense? Basically don’t think highly of yourself if you’ve done nothing to show for it.
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