The Christian pride
“When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: ‘Release those men.’ The jailer told Paul, ‘The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.’ But Paul said to the officers: ‘They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.’
The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left” (Acts 16:35-40).
Today, too many people seem to live in inferiority and frustration. Disregarding themselves, they keep repeating the thought that 'I am nothing, I am not worthy of grace or blessing.' Negative and dark thoughts like this result in terrible ruin. One of the consequences is self-abuse. For example, every time we look in our mirror, we look at ourselves and lose our self-esteem in inferiority and frustration, insisting on ourselves, and live our lives saying to ourselves, ‘This ugly boy, this filthy boy, you dirty boy, you don't deserve a happy life.’ What is inferiority? It means “the condition of being lower in status or quality than another or others” (Internet). In Chinese, the sense of inferiority means ‘to be humble and to despise oneself.’ After all, inferiority is a feeling that we consider out own physique, appearance, ability, and educational background to be inferior to that of others, or to devalue it to a worthless human being. The people with inferiority have low self-esteem due to their unhealthy self-concept. When a person is caught in inferiority, he becomes passive, loses himself in everything, and because of this feeling, he cannot do anything positively. In general, the person who is inferior feels that he is lacking in comparison with other people by broadly interpreting his lacking aspects.
An English-language scholar and philosopher C. S. Lewis of Cambridge University of England said Satan's greatest weapon in destroying the personality and consciousness of modern people is the ‘comparison consciousness’ that is behind the inferiority. Too many people, even Christians, are attacked by this Satan's weapon and live with inferiority, passive life, and low self-esteem in all things. They are internally anxious, fearful, and self-abusive. Some people with inferiority sometimes have perfectional symptoms that come from keeping the inferior from being revealed. They are trying very hard to cover and disguise their inferior parts. But we Christians must live with pride. What is pride? It is self-esteem, a positive view of self-existence value. A British psychologist Dr. J. Hardfield's research on self-confidence shows that when we have sense of shame and say to ourselves, ‘You're wrong, it's over!,’ we're using only less than 30% of what we actually have. But on the contrary, when we give ourselves the confidence, "You can do it! You're special! Why can't you do it?’, then we can use 500% of our ability (Internet).
We Christians can find our own positive existence only in Jesus. We can never find anything in us that can be proud of something outside of Jesus. As new creatures only in Jesus are we looking for eternal pride and infinite dignity conferred upon us in His gospel. Therefore, as the new creation in Jesus, we are the children of God, we open up our spiritual eyes to see ourselves from God’s perspective of how Heavenly Father sees us. For example, when we look at ourselves in terms of how God see us based on Isaiah 43:4 “Since you are precious and honored in my sight”, we realize more and more how valuable our own worth is.
Paul and Silas were proud as Romans.
Apostles Paul and Silas were put into prison because they had been innocently framed. At that time they prayed and praised God (Acts 16:25). At that time, in God’s presence Paul and Silas could have fled but they didn’t. And there was a work of rejoicing because the jailer and all his house believed in God (v. 34). Then when it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer to release Paul and Silas (v. 35). So the jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace” (v. 36). How interesting Paul's answer was then: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out” (v. 37). How bold was Paul's attitude? It is interesting to note that Apostle Paul revealed that he and Silas were Romans. Apparently after healing a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future (v. 16) in the name of Jesus Christ (v. 18), her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone (v. 19). So they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace (v. 19) and brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” (vv. 20-21). Even at that time, Paul didn’t say that he was Roman. Although he and Silas were Roman citizens, they were put into prison without proper legal proceedings according to Roman law (Yoo). So Paul said to the officers, “Let them come themselves and escort us out” (v. 37). It is not clear why Apostle Paul now reveals himself and Silas to be Romans. If Paul told the magistrates that he and Silas were Romans before they were thrown into prison, then they didn’t have to be stripped, beaten and severely flogged (vv. 22-23). But it’s interesting to see that Paul revealed that he and Silas were Romans after they were stripped, beaten and severely flogged. However, one thing is clear that because Paul didn’t revealed himself and Silas as Romans, the jailer and his whole house believed in God (v. 34). If Paul and Silas said they were Romans when the masters of the healed slave dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities, they would not be held in prison. If so, then Paul and Silas wouldn’t have experienced the miraculous power of God's presence in prison and wouldn’t have met the jailer. If so, then there would be no such thing as verse 34 that the jailer and his whole house believed in God. When we meditate on this wonderful work of salvation through Paul and Silas, the men of prayers, Paul and Silas’ attitude was that, like the other apostles, they rejoiced because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name (5:41). Paul revealed that he and Silas were Romans when he was released from prison (16:37). At that time, the officers reported this to the magistrates that Paul and Silas were Romans (v. 38). At that time the magistrates were afraid (v. 38). The reason was because at that time those who were Roman citizens were to be tried in a very fair and just process compared to those of noncitizens. But without such a fair and just process, the Romans Paul and Silas were imprisoned after they were beaten with rods (vv. 22-23). If this was reported to the Roman authorities, those magistrates could not escape the responsibility, so they personally came to the prison and kept begging Paul and Silas to leave the city (v. 39). How confidently did Paul and Silas left the prison? In seeing Paul and Silas found their right and being treated by the Romans, we can see that Paul and Silas were proud to be Roman.
It may be less now, but long ago, it seemed hopeful to have US citizenship. It was usually the idea of immigrants to expect that once they get US permanent residence, even if they are not citizens, they will be recognized as US citizens that the people in this world might be envious. Maybe it was 1995. When I first went to Korea, I went to the Korean Embassy in Fukuoka, Japan, because I didn't have a visa. At that time, I went with my cousin who was living in Busan. When I got off the Japanese airfield and tried to enter, we have to write something on a paper. Since I am an American citizen, a custom agent wrote things for me on the paper while he told my cousin to go and fill it up. At that time, my cousin was very mad. At that time, I realized little bit the power of US citizenship. Although this was just a small example of my own experience, it was comfortable being an American citizen. After all, enjoying my rights as a US citizen can be prideful when it is compared to other countries citizens.
We must have pride as Christians. Why should we have pride as Christians? The reason is because our citizenship is in heaven, not in the United States. Look at Philippians 3:20-21: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” We who have citizenship in heaven are waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to come again. When He comes to this world again, we will be transformed into conformity with the body of His glory. That is why we must live with pride. We should never live in self-abuse or passively with inferiority or frustration. We should never have material riches and worldly pride like the Laodicean church (Rev. 3:16-17). This is because worldly pride eventually causes spiritual poverty. Rather, we must go toward the heaven with spiritual pride in the midst of our worldly need. Sine we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we must be strong and courageous with the pride of being able to do all things through Him who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13). The reason is because the Lord has overcome the world. Look at John 16:33 - “...In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” We Christians need to live this world with such pride and strength and boldness. We should live with confidence and courage in the Lord. We should never live in fear and insecurity. Why is that? Look at Isaiah 41:10 – “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”