When I was a student at Bethel, Lavonne and I were invited as
honorary guests to a banquet held each year for students near the
top of their graduating class in the colleges and law schools of St.
Paul. I was delighted with this opportunity, and it was with a real
sense of satisfaction that I put on my best clothes, and headed for the
hotel in downtown St. Paul to meet my sponsor. Each student was
the guest of a sponsor who bought their tickets, and we were to be at
the same table with our sponsor to give the whole affair a personal
touch.
Lavonne and I walked around a bit and marveled at the beauty of
the setting. We were quite excited to be in such an expensive
atmosphere. We were always several hundred dollars behind in our
bills that we owed to Bethel, and so our experience of eating in fancy
hotels was somewhere around zero. When we splurged, we went to
The Flame Burger instead of McDonalds. The point is, this was a
unique and exciting experience, and we were impressed.
Then the pin and bubble met. Our sponsor found us at the
appointed place, and we introduced ourselves. Then he said that his
family was from such and such a line of descendants going back for
centuries, and his father was some prominent person in the
community. Then he asked where my family was from, and what
my father did. I was surprised by the question, and puzzled. I didn't
see the relevance of it at all. I stammered out something to the effect
that my father worked in a meat packing plant, and that all I know
about my ancestors was that my grandfather had been a farmer.
There was a wall between us immediately, for he had apparently
expected to spend the evening comparing which of us had the most
dukes in our family tree. I thought it was rather unmannerly of
him to wave his pedigree before us before he found out if I was also
a nobleman like himself. The result was a rather boring evening,
probably typical of other such encounters of pauper and prince.
The point of all this autobiographical introduction is that I in my
first encounter with strong family pride was made to feel
embarrassed. His boasting of his superior heritage made me feel
aggravated. In analyzing the situation I have concluded that the
problem did not consist in his pedigree, but in his pride which was
expressed in a self-exalting manner.
Certainly there is a legitimate pride to be had in one's ancestors
and line of decent, but one must be aware of the dangers of a false
pride. Plutarch wisely said, "It is indeed a desirable thing to be well
descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors." In other words,
if we can be grateful for a good heritage, and avoid assuming the
credit for it, as if we merited such a heritage, then we are within the
bounds of true dignity. Wordsworth put it:
True dignity abides with him alone
Who in the silent hour of inward thought
Can still suspect, and still revere himself,
In lowliness of heart.
True dignity is characterized by a grateful humility, and not boastful
pride. This is where men fail and allow their good heritage
to be a liability rather than an asset. They become proud and make
others feel uncomfortable when, by humility, they could use such a
noble heritage as a subject on which to express gratitude, and to
cause others to also count their blessings. A good heritage is only of
value if it makes you a better person yourself. Even a pagan poet
can see the worthlessness of a noble family tree as an end in itself.
Juvenal said to one who was falsely proud:
Your ancient house! No more-I cannot see
The wondrous merits of a pedigree;
No, Ponticus, nor of a proud display
Of smoky ancestors in wax or clay.
Sir Thomas Overbury adds this remark against the boasters:
"The man who has not any thing to boast of but his illustrious
ancestors is like a potato, the only good belonging to him is
underground." Unless there is fruit above ground in one's own life,
you merit no praise or credit for your family tree, and if there is
fruit in your life because of them, the glory is to be shared with them
in grateful humility.
Now you might say that I have spent a lot of time proving a point
that might be of use to those of noble birth, but what good is this to
us who have no noble pedigree, and who have every reason to be
humble because there is nothing of note of which to be proud?
What good is this to those who may have a few horse thieves
hanging from their family tree? It could be many of us would be in
the same situation as the man who paid a lawyer 200 dollars to trace
back his ancestry, and when it was completed, he paid him 2,000 to
keep it quiet.
None of this really makes a difference, for John wrote to persons
whose ancestors were pagans or slaves, and yet, in as clear and
forceful language as possible, he tells them they are of exceedingly
high birth as Christians. John is saying that Christians have a
heritage so rich and noble it makes the chain of the succession of the
kings of England look like a string of paupers in comparison. We
would have to coin a new word to express it anywhere near
adequately, for if it is a noble birth to be born of a king, what is it to
be born of the King of Kings? This is what John says in 2:29 is the
case with those who are righteous through Jesus Christ-they are
born of God. He goes on into chapter 3 to dwell on the marvel of it.
It is simply amazing and astounding John says that we should be
called the sons of God, or more accurately, children of God. What
pedigree can match that?
In the battle for producing the greatest pedigree a man in
Scotland thought he had cleverly reached the ultimate, for he had
this as his epitaph.
John Carnegie lies here,
Decended from Adam and Eve.
If any can boast of a pedigree higher,
He will willingly give leave.
Another with different wording took the same approach:
Nobles and heralds, by your leave,
Here lies what once was Matthew Prior;
The son of Adam and Eve:
Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?
We do not know if the Bourbon's or Nassau's can meet that
challenge, but we know that anyone who has been made righteous
through Jesus Christ, even if their ancestors were slaves, and they
themselves are slaves, can claim a higher and holier heritage, for
their genealogy goes back, not just to Adam and Eve, but to their
Creator, and the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Our family tree in
Christ contains all the saints of God from the beginning of time.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Prophets, Christ and the
Apostles, are all in our spiritual ancestry. We have two family trees,
and two genealogies-one natural and one spiritual. By the new birth
we becomes members of the greatest heritage and greatest
family-the family of God.
If anyone has basis for boasting in a marvelously noble birth and
rich heritage, it is the Christian. Yet, he cannot boast in pride, for it
is all unmerited, for it is all of grace. We did not choose Him for our
Father. He choose us for His children. We only love Him because
He first loved us. No matter what comes to the Christian he should
be one who is perpetually and humbly grateful that he has been
made a child of God. God forbid that we take this great truth and
abuse it as men do with their earthly pedigrees. The glory belongs
to our Father and not us. A holier than thou attitude in the
Christian is offensive for the same reason that the family tree
boaster is offensive. This attitude is a display of self-centered pride
that acts as if one was worthy of his heritage.
John makes it clear that the wonder of our being children of God
does not at all lie in us, but rather in the love of God. Paul
recognized this also when he said, "God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Christ." If anyone had a good pedigree going for
them it was Paul, but he counted it as dung that he might know
Christ. John makes it clear that those who are truly children of God
will be so grateful and humble that they will give themselves
completely to the task of being Christlike in purity. The Christians
pride is in his Father and his Savior, and this makes all the
difference in the world between an effective witness and a holier
than thou attitude that drives people away. The Christian is to look
down his nose at no one, even though he be of the most noble blood
in history. To be pure as Jesus was pure is to be free from the pride
that demands respect.
In the third century there was a devastating persecution of the
Christians in Carthage by Decius the Emperor. Christians were
sought out, imprisoned and killed. At this same time a plague struck
and was also taking many lives. Cyprian, the leader of the
Christians, called upon them to minister to the heathen people who
lay sick and dying, and he gave as his reason for urging such action
this statement: "We must be worthy of our birth. Now are we
children of God."
Cyprian understood John and recognized that children of God
are known by their conformity to the only begotten Son of God. We
are already children of God, and have the greatest heritage possible,
but there is still a greater hope yet to come, for when we see Him
face to face we shall be like Him. In other words, Christlikeness is
the ultimate goal of the believer, and that being so, John says the
proof that one is really a child a God heading for that ultimate goal
is seen in the fact that he is right now striving to be Christlike. If
Christlikeness is really our hope for eternity, we will be aiming for it
in time, and purifying ourselves as He is pure.
J. R. Lowell wrote concerning those who boast of a great
heritage, but who do not live worthy of it.
They talk about their Pilgrim blood,
Their birthright high and holy!
A mountain stream that ends in mud,
Methinks is melancholy.
It is doubly sad for one who claims to be a child of God to let the
pure stream of living water end in mud. We must be worthy of our
birth. We are children of the King of Kings. How we live before the
world will determine how they feel about our heavenly Father. Our
concept of the Father has been determined by the life and love of His
Son the Lord Jesus. Our goal is to be like Him that the world can
know God as we know Him. John says the world will not recognize
us as children of God, for they do not know the Father or the Son.
They will persecute and kill, but if we persist in being as pure as
Christ under all circumstances, they will eventually see our good
works and glorify our Father in heaven. We are poor branches of
the family tree if men do not admire the whole tree because of us.
May God help us to live lives worthy of those who are called
children of God.
