Walking with the Wise #15: To Whom It Is Due

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.”

—Proverbs 3:27

God desires us to love Him and love our neighbor. There are many different ways we can love our neighbor and one of them is by helping them when we have the opportunity to do so. At our core, we are selfish individuals. Just like Lucifer, we think we deserve praise, and like Adam and Eve, we want to be our own gods. We struggle in helping others, because we want to put people in their place. Why? Because, if we are honest, we know that we are proud. C.S. Lewis, wrote about the danger and subtle nature of pride,

“I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, 'How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?' The point is that each person's pride is in competition with every one else's pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive - is competitive by its very nature - while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not. The sexual impulse may drive two men into competition if they both want the same girl. But that is only by accident; they might just as likely have wanted two different girls. But a proud man will take your girl from you, not because he wants her, but just to prove to himself that he is a better man than you. Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power. Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.”—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

Pride is competitive by nature, which is where our passage for today comes in. Whenever we have the opportunity to do good, we should. Pride, however, gets in the way saying, “I deserve this, not them.” And rather than do good to them or for them, we would rather ignore them and simply do nothing. Such thinking is against the Bible. Walking with the wise means giving honor to whom honor is due or doing good to those who deserve it, which, by the way, is a principle repeated in the New Testament (Romans 13:7).

Paul wrote that we are to,

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others”—Philippians 2:3-4.

We are to follow Jesus’ example. He was not proud. Instead, He was the greatest example of humility, as Paul wrote,

“…who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”—Philippians 2:6-8.

Jesus humbled Himself and so should we. If we have the opportunity to do good to another person, then we should. It might be a humbling thing to our ego, and a clear shot at our pride, but it is the right thing to do and it is the way of Christ. He didn’t cite His rights, when He was being misaligned. No, He humbled Himself to die at the hand of sinful man in order to procure salvation for us.

Do you have the opportunity to do good to another? Are you withholding good or honor from them? Why? Has your pride got in the way? Or are you jealous of them and what they have accomplished? Honor those to whom honor is due. Do good to them and so show yourself to be a servant of Christ in order that God might receive glory and you might experience joy. Amen.