Principles for Body Life

The gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to give ourselves to God as living sacrifices, surrendering any claim to the fulfillment of our own desires and seeking His will above all else. So Paul taught us in Romans 12:1–2. Now, as we come to Romans 12:3, Paul turns his attention to instructing us on how to live among other people God has created. Initially he focuses in on those whom, like us, God has re-created, the justified ones who form Christ’s church. First, however, Paul takes a moment in this verse to help us recalibrate our thinking about ourselves. “He knows that none of us will ever properly evaluate and esteem other Christians within the fellowship of the church if our pride is in the way,” Dr. James M. Boice writes in his commentary.

As in verses 1–2, Paul here urges the Romans to reject wrong thinking and embrace the correct viewpoint. In this case, the idea to be rejected is an excessively high view of one’s self. Boice points out that it is natural for us to think more highly of ourselves than we should. After all, the sinful nature does not see itself as such; we simply do not want to believe that we are rebels against the holy God. Thus, we give ourselves the benefit of every doubt and assign the purest motives to our actions. Plus, we take pride in many things—our accomplishments, our associations with people or institutions, our possessions, and so forth. Constantly comparing ourselves to other people, we find many areas in which we excel, and so we conclude that we are among the best and the brightest of all the race.

We are not to think like this, Paul tells us. Instead, we must “think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Simply put, “thinking soberly” involves understanding ourselves in the light of all that Paul has taught us in Romans 1–11. We must remember the awful truth of our sinfulness. But we also must remember the truth of God’s love for us. Of course, as we also have learned from Romans, the sinful mind cannot grasp these truths apart from the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. He must do His work of regeneration, causing us to see that we are desperately in need of a Savior and that Christ has taken our sufferings upon Himself. This knowledge will prevent us from having an opinion of ourselves that is out of accord with the truth, which in turn will promote healthy relationships with others.