Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Matthew 7:1-5
Judging Others
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Mark 12:41-44
The Widow’s Offering
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Matthew 6:1-4
Giving to the Needy
1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Jesus teaches us much on pride...When we are prideful, it wants others to notice us, it wants recognition, when we do something good...But when we do good things, we should not look for earthly rewards...God sees everything and He will reward those who have done good in secret...Many of us want recognition when we work hard, or do good work, help others, or some other good deed...This is our pride coming out...But Jesus wants us to think of others in the Good Light of Love...This is how He looks at things...Jesus even tells us to be careful when we judge others, because when we do, we are saying or judging one by our values and our knowledge...Are our values always better than others?...Is our knowledge better than others?...We must be careful about this...He tells us to look carefully at ourselves first...Jesus wants us to love our neighbor without our judging him...
Jesus teaches us to have humility, and warns us against arrogance...Humble good deeds will be rewarded by God, in His time, and in His place of recognition, whether in this time or eternity...
C.S. Lewis wrote about pride...He links competition to pride...He says that pride is essentially competitive...Lewis says that pride is what makes a man making a comfortable living -wanting to have his salary doubled...It is not the greed for more pleasure...It is the competition with your neighbor and your fellow man that you want more than him...It is the wish to be richer than another rich man, and seeing what they have makes them want more riches, and more power...
Embedded in these thoughts are also links to comparison to others, envy of others, judging of others, coveting, and greed can come into our lives...When we compare ourselves to others, especially one or ones who have more than us, we want more...Sometimes, just seeing what a rich family has can make us want what they have and make us want more, a bigger car, a bigger house...We can even think, if we are poorer than another, that things in this life are unfair...Why can't we have what others have, or why can't we be rich?...When we think about this and life in these terms, we will want more...If we do not get more, we may envy others or the material things they have...We might even covet those material things of others, if we do not have them...If we get more, and have what we need, and continue to want more them we may become greedy...After all, if we have everything we need, why should we want more material things?...Shouldn't we just want to be closer to God?...When we see others having things we like and want, and expect we should have, we may become biased against our neighbor...We may judge them unfairly... After all, why do they deserve those nice things?...My thoughts are, I work just as hard as them, or maybe even harder...Lewis says that pride leads to all the other vices, and in these examples, we can see how pride works against us and is the great sin...
When one is completely focused on God, like Jesus is, one can be humble...When you read through the gospels, you never get any inkling of Jesus being arrogant or conceited...Jesus did many great things while He was on earth...He was a great healer, a great speaker, and a miraculous Man, who did many miracles...I used to think that, if Jesus only would give me a little touch to do miracles for awhile, I could really help Him...I think now that this is my pride showing...Me wanting His touch to help Him is one wanting power, not for Him, but for me...But I used to think, I could control the miracles I would do, but now I don't think so...For some reason, I think instead of doing everything for God's will, something would finally happen and I would do something of my will...It would be like telling God, I know You don't understand, but (I think) this needs to be done...I know what needs to be done...This is helping...I realize now my pride, would get in the way, of helping Him...I would be unable to control myself, and somehow my will would be getting done, with the power He has granted me, and not His will...I am not like Jesus...I am a prideful sinner...I sometimes think that one of Jesus' greatest miracles was to all the great things He did in such a humble and subtle way...And the people around Him did not recognize who He was, because there was no pomp and circumstance...
Lewis in summing up and explaining pride, says to acquire humility we must take the first step...The first step to humility is realize that you yourself are proud...This is not only the first step, but a difficult step, because many believers do not think they are proud (at least not most of the time)...We cannot make it to humility until we make it past the first step...And if you think you are not conceited, you are, in fact, very conceited indeed (Lewis says)...
When I read about the widow's offering the first time, I did not know Jesus was teaching me about pride...The widow gave what she could and what she had to God...She expected no reward for this...She trusted in God...This is just what Jesus teaches...The good believer is not expecting a reward...They are not expecting one to point them out and identify them...The good is not expecting to be paid back at all by others, in recognition, or in monetary rewards...Like the widow we should help others, without the hope of getting any earthly reward or recognition...The good, humbly wants to help others, and trusts in the LORD that He will take care of the rest...The humble one knows that our good deeds are to glorify God, and not ourselves...