Romans 3:9
"What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin."
Everyone is living in sin. As long as we are living in the world, we are living under the authority of sin. Human beings often don't know our own limitations and we always believing that we are mightier than others. That is the most serious threat for our spiritual life and Christians are not immuned either. In the Corinthian church, some brothers and sisters followed Apollo and they focused on analyzing and interpreting the Bible, some followed Peter and focused on signs and wonders, and others followed Paul and focused on the work of evangelism. Therefore, in the church they often say to one another to whom they belong to, and some even claim to belong to no one but Christ. Actually, claiming to belong to Christ is also a matter of pride because it implies others don't belong to Christ.
People like to think they are right and they like to form small groups, or even form circles to quarrel against each other, and none of these is from God. We need to remove all these thought that are not from God, because we must first understand that before God we are all sinners and we are no better than others. I became a pastor not because I am better than you, but only because of God's mercy. You became a Christian not because you are better than others in the world, but only because of God's mercy. Everything is from God's mercy, and therefore Paul said we have absolutely to boast about.
I've seen a great bumper sticker that says "Christians are not perfect, just forgiven." We are just sinners who've received God's grace. Also, in order to overcome the attitude that we are better than others, we need to have the spirit to think the opposite - We need to see that others are better than us in everything. Ephesians 2:3 says: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." We need to be humble, because as Chinese idiom says, "wherever there are three people, I have something to learn from at lease one of them." We can always find something that we can learn from others. May the Lord help us, let us tear down the walls inside the church so that we may accept one another in Christ, and so that the heart of Christ can be satisfied.
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