The Gospel of Luke: Jesus is for everyone – Pride and prejudice! Be humble
Luke 18:9-14
- Pride and prejudice (vs 9) – Pride makes everyone sick except the person who has it! Pride is a disease. It is one of the main things that stop people becoming Christians. Proud people struggle to admit they are wrong. They struggle to accept they are sinners and deny their need for Jesus. How much of your life is affected by Pride? Is Pride blocking you from a closer relationship with Jesus? Pride keeps us looking down on others and prevents us seeing things above us! In verse 9 these people were confident of their own righteousness. They were looking down on others and on Jesus teaching.
- The Pharisee – spiritual pride (vs 11-12) – The Pharisees were good, respected people. They were devote and morally good people. The Pharisee Jesus was talking about was a good person, but he was still guilty of spiritual pride. Spiritual pride is still around today. Do you think you are better than other Christians? Spiritual pride damages others and hinders them in their relationship with God. We need to examine and rid our hearts from spiritual pride. We also need to examine whether we are victims of spiritual pride and seeing ourselves as below other Christians. We need to be the person God has called us to be and see us as God sees us.
- The tax collector (vs 13-14) – The tax collector was not a respected Jew. This tax collector didn’t feel worthy to come near to God. He knew he was a sinner who deserved judgement and rejection. He was broken before God. He was totally dependent on the mercy of God. The tax collector was justified by his faith alone. Jesus never asked us to climb up to where He is. He reaches down to us and lifts us up to be with Him.