Articles
Arrogance
Eddie Long, “pastor” of the New Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, died recently from cancer. Long had grown his congregation from 300 members in 1987 to more than 25,000 in 2010.
When Long was questioned about his $3.07 million in salary, benefits and use of property between 1997 and 2000, he replied: “We're not just a church, we're an international corporation. We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation. You've got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that's supposed to be just getting by …” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution online, 1/15/2017).
Wow, what breathtaking arrogance. But that’s not the worst of it.
Long also took several teenage boys on mission trips “to Kenya, Honduras and the Bahamas, among other exotic locales, introducing them to world-famous celebrities and lavishing them with new cars and their own apartments” (ibid). In 2010, a lawsuit was filed against Long by the young men for sexual coercion. The case was settled out of court.
Our achievements, even if dressed in religious garb, can disorient us and cause us to exaggerate our importance and exempt ourselves from moral responsibility. For these reasons God warns us repeatedly about imagining a high status for ourselves:
“For I say … to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly”(Rom 12:3).
“For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Cor 10:12).
“For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends” (2 Cor 10:18).
Pride is an overestimate of one’s worth, abilities and superiority to the degree that unwarranted privilege is taken or others are treated with contempt. It is an undue focus on what one thinks he deserves and a corresponding willingness to minimize others for personal advantage. In its worst form arrogance will even defy God, for the proud think they don’t need God or can break His laws with impunity.
But Mr. Long plunged into the deep where the apostle Paul feared the shallows: “If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity” (2 Cor 11:30). This passage appears in a context of heavy sarcasm as Paul opposes false teachers who falsely claim apostolic authority. Like Eddie Long, they based their self-image on popularity, carnal embellishments, and where they ranked in the pecking order among peers.
But while Paul was the real deal, he was extremely cautious about claiming more than he deserved: “But ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord’” (2 Cor 10:17; 1 Cor 28-31). Humility frees us from the imaginary world of our own importance and allows us to serve others with gladness.
