Watch your attitude

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. – Galatians 5.26

Conceit

Provocation

Envy

These are pretty ugly character flaws.

And yet right here in the middle of teaching about the flesh and the spirit and all the odious works of the flesh we have a warning against conceit, provocation, and envy. It may not seem to 'fit' at first, but I think there is a clear connection.  Two of them, at least, seem to fit right In the context.

Actually I don't think it is a difficult connection at all. I think it is pretty clear and pretty obvious.

If we are caught of up an system of 'do this don't do that' and we 'do this and don't do that' better than somebody else it naturally draws us the be conceited, or, as the wonderful old King James translation put it, vain glory. We can get all puffed up and think, 'oh, I do everything right, I must be a better Christian than so and son.'

That of course leads to provoking and prodding and poking at them for not following our list of good works. There is a tendency to put them down because they don't measure up to our own list of standards. In our false sense of spirituality we put them down because it makes us feel good.

On the last point I admit that there is a bit of conjecture. When we are bound by abiblical does and don'ts it is just barely possible that we envy those who live in liberty because they get to do things we don't get to do.

When we allow ourselves to be bound by man’s rules that are outside the remit of scripture  we get ourselves in all kinds of trouble.

Besides, if our standard is to love God and love our brethren I find that we get much more careful about our own dos and don’ts’