Galatians 6:3 - Don't deceive yourself (11-23-11)

Galatians 6:3 - "For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

Closely related to what we saw yesterday about deceiving ourselves in regard to wisdom, is this verse about deceiving ourselves into thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. Proverbs 25:14 says - "Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely." We don't have the right to think highly of ourselves. Anything good in us is a result of God's working in us, nothing of ourselves or our own effort. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7 - "For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? Everything we have has been given us by God, so what reason could we possibly have for boasting? No one boasts about how good they are at receiving gifts. The Giver, not the receiver, deserves the credit. He is everything and we are nothing.
Jesus illustrates this truth in a parable found in Luke 18:9-14 which says - "And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”"
Notice in the 'prayer' of the Pharisee how often he mentions himself. It says that He stood praying to himself, and he began telling himself of all his good works. This man did not have a proper view of himself. He thought he was something when he was actually nothing. On the other hand, the tax collector knew that he was nothing. He had a proper view of himself. He was unwilling to even lift up his eyes to heaven, and he was pleading for the mercy of God because he knew that he was a sinner, unworthy, he regarded himself as nothing. And so Jesus says "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other." 
Paul says in Romans 12:3 - "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith." We need to realize that anything we have of any value has been given to us by God. We need to surrender ourselves complete to Him so that He can make something out of nothing.

2 Corinthians 3:4-5 - "Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God."