Are you a proud person? Do you revel in your achievements? Do you lord your knowledge over others, attempting to impress them or control them? Is a person who is puffed up someone you want to be around?
We fall prey to thinking highly of ourselves. We like to compare ourselves to others and tell ourselves we are better than they are. Yet, we typically do not want to be around someone who looks at us as being inferior.
When we puff ourselves up in our own mind, telling ourselves we are better than so and so, we are not loving as we should. Our hearts may go out to those who are less fortunate, while we puff ourselves up when dealing with our family or someone who has wronged us. We don’t like to see a sports player taunt another and there are rules against it, but we will throw our ability to do something better than someone else in their face.
Demonstrating the love God has for us in our actions toward others means doing so without being puffed up, arrogant, taunting, or showing up someone else. Love does not include false humility but seeing ourselves as God sees us and seeing others as God sees them, then choosing to treat them as a child of God.
As Paul tells the church in Colossae, that mindset is from an unspiritual mind. In other words, we do not have our minds set on God but selfishness and worldly desires. When we are puffed up, we are caught in the web of deceit Satan lays out for us.
How do we keep from falling prey to the temptation? We keep our focus on God. We remind ourselves daily that Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. We remember the pain He went through to grant us the hope and salvation we have.
I pray we all decide to see others as God sees them. I pray we remember what Jesus did for everyone on this earth. I pray each one of us chooses to not be puffed up but love instead. Treat others as you want to be treated. Love others as God loves you. Give up false humility. Do not puff yourself up.
Colossians 2:18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.
Marty Pressey 