Romans 12:3
Main Point: Think rightly by putting off pride and putting on biblical humility.
I. Beware of Pride – v. 3a
“There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” – Prov. 6:16-19
“O believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that you have no ground for it. Whatever you are, you have nothing to make you proud. The more you have, the more you are in debt to God; and you should not be proud of that which renders you a debtor.” – Charles Spurgeon
“The law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.” – Charles Spurgeon
II. Embrace Humility – v. 3b.
“The surest mark of true conversion is humility.” – JC Ryle
“Humility is the grace that attracts more grace. Pride closes the door to spiritual growth, but humility opens the door of your life to more of God’s grace. To the humble, God gives patience and peace and gentleness. The fruit of the Spirit grows in the soil of humility. Humility is the key to spiritual growth.” – Open Bible
“It is not humility to underrate yourself. Humility is to think of yourself as God thinks of you. It is to feel that if we have talents God has given them to us. And let it be seen that, like freight in a vessel, they tend to sink us low. The more we have, the lower we ought to lie.” – Charles Spurgeon
“Such requires that we, in an attitude of humility, “count others more significant” than ourselves (v. 3). What Paul has in view here is not a negative estimation of our own self-worth or a refusal to be honest about our own abilities, for elsewhere he demands that we think of ourselves soberly and properly, recognizing our own dignity without thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought (Rom. 12:3). We are not, as it were, to see other people as inherently better than we are because of their talents or position; rather, we are to count others as more significant than ourselves insofar as we consider their needs before our own.” – R.C. Sproul
“That man is truly humble who neither claims any personal merit in the sight of God, nor proudly despises brethren, or aims at being thought superior to them, but reckons it enough that he is one of the members of Christ, and desires nothing more than that the Head alone should be exalted.” – John Calvin
“Humility is the opposite of a sense of entitlement.” – John Piper
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