Recently, I felt it on my heart to write this article. Not to point fingers at anyone, but to remind us how easy it is to forget who we are before God. Sometimes, without even realizing it, we begin to measure our worth by what we do instead of remembering that everything we are and everything we have is by grace.
We live in a time when our actions are visible, shared, and celebrated. Evangelizing in other countries, giving to those in need, serving in church… all of these things are beautiful and necessary. The problem begins when those works feed our pride and we start to feel superior to those who, in our eyes, do less. The Bible warns us about this very thing: “I say to everyone among you […] not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3).
Doing a lot does not mean that our heart is in the right place. We can be active in the Lord’s work and, at the same time, become proud, indifferent, or unloving toward the people closest to us. We may even begin to think that we are better Christians because we serve more, give more, or are involved in more things. And the dangerous thing about spiritual pride is that it often hides behind good things.
Ephesians 2:8–9 reminds us: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Good works have their place, but they were never the reason God saves us. Everything we are able to do for Him comes after we have received His grace. When we forget that, we can begin to look at the person next to us and think, I do more. I give more. I’m actually serving God. And without realizing it, what should have led us to serve with humility becomes a reason to feel superior.
Jesus spoke about this in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee prayed, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men…” while the tax collector would not even lift his eyes toward heaven. At the end of the parable, Jesus said that it was the tax collector who went home justified (Luke 18:10–14). The Pharisee’s problem was not that he did good things. The problem was what those things had done to the way he saw himself and others.
The modern Pharisee does not wear a robe or necessarily pray out loud on a street corner. He may be sitting right next to us at church. He may even be us. He shows up when we think, At least I’m serving. I give. I help. I would never do what that person did. Little by little, we begin to use our own works as a measuring stick for everyone else.
I remember a story about Mateo, a young Christian who was passionate about taking the gospel to other nations. Every year, he traveled with his mission group to faraway places, shared his testimony, and helped vulnerable communities. His church admired him, and many people saw him as an example. But at home, Mateo was a different person. He rarely called his mother. He ignored his sister when she tried to open up to him, and his friends felt that he was becoming more and more distant. “I’m busy doing God’s work,” he would always say to justify himself.
One day, while listening to a sermon about loving our neighbor, the preacher said, “There is no point in loving the stranger if you neglect the people God placed in your path first.” Those words made Mateo think. He realized that his works were not bad. Helping those people was still a good thing. But he had allowed everything he was doing to keep him from seeing the people who also needed him right where he was. He had become so focused on what he was doing for God that he was neglecting the way he treated the people closest to him.
There is something very poetic that James says, yet at the same time, it is quite direct: “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Sometimes we live as though we are greater than we really are. We have more, do more, give more, and begin to feel important, superior, and even untouchable. But we are still human beings whose lives are, as James says, a mist.
Everything we have can change. Our money, opportunities, recognition, position, and even our ability to do all those things that make us feel important today. None of it makes us superior to another person. We are not taking our accomplishments with us when our lives end either. Remembering that we are not immortal puts us back in our place: we are creatures dependent on God, living by His grace and using, for a time, what He has placed in our hands.
That is why our works should lead us to love better, not to look down on others. We can travel to the other side of the world to help someone and still sit down and listen to our mother. We can serve in church and pay attention to the friend who needs to talk. We can give generously and still treat with respect the person who does not have what we have. One does not have to cancel out the other.
Maybe this article made you a little uncomfortable. That’s okay. Sometimes we need to remember that serving God also includes the people right in front of us. Today, look around you. Love, help, and pay attention to the people within your reach. No matter how much you have, how much you do, or how much you give, you still need the same grace of God as everyone else.
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