I Know Better Than You

One day in ancient Israel, two men went to the temple. These men were very different—one of them was a Pharisee, a renowned teacher of the law, and one of them was a tax collector, a job infamous for its corruption and uncleanness. 

If you grew up in the church, you probably know this story. In case you don't know it, I'll quote the rest from Luke 18:11–14: 

'The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”'

What if, instead of a Pharisee, it was a clean-cut church kid who's been taught the Bible for all of his or her life? And instead of a tax collector, it was a scruffy-looking man or woman with a history of drug abuse? 

Let me clarify: I don't mean to say that it's bad to grow up in the church. It's a wonderful blessing, and those of us who did should be extremely grateful for it. 

But at the same time, it is really, really easy for us to look down on people the same way the Pharisee looked down on that tax collector. 

I've noticed that a lot of people (myself included) tend to think of non-Christians in an overly simplistic way. We think that since we've been saved and accepted the Bible as the infallible Word of God, we understand the world better than they do. We know better than them. And, unfortunately, that usually makes us think that we are better than them. 

But though there are elements of truth to that—I'll touch more on those later—that way of thinking is rooted in our pride, and it's actually unbiblical. There is nothing inherently better about believers than unbelievers. 

So how should we Biblically think of non-Christians?

 

Christians aren't smarter.

First of all, let's understand why people tend to think like this. 

Christianity as a worldview is true, for a myriad of reasons that we don't have time to get to in this post. Therefore, people who don't hold to it can't fully understand the world without holding to contradictory, illogical viewpoints—they're missing a key piece of the puzzle that will make the whole thing fit together. 

If you do accept Christianity as true, though, you have access to a huge amount of truth inside the Bible. When the Holy Spirit enters into you at your salvation, you're able to understand things that you didn't understand before. You see the world more clearly. 

So because Christians see more of the truth than non-Christians do, it's easy to think that we're smarter than them. After all, we know better—we can see more of the world than they can. We're more rational. 

Put simply, Christianity is truth, and without Christianity, there is no truth. Therefore, Christians are all the people who are smart enough to see the truth and act on it. 

That's completely false. 

Oh, the first sentence is right, but Christians aren't smarter than everybody else! And saying that they are is a surefire way to cultivate the pride in your heart. 

All believers were once unbelievers. I was once an unbeliever. You, if you're a Christian, used to be an unbeliever too. 

And you know what happened to make us believe? 

God did.

God was merciful to us, sinners, and he changed our hearts. Jesus took the guilt of our sin onto himself and accepted the punishment for the things we did. And the Holy Spirit guaranteed our inheritance and opened our eyes. 

And none of that was because of something that we did! If we were allowed to freely choose between life and death, we would choose death every single time. We did not save ourselves.

1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us." If God hadn't loved us first, we would still hate him today. 

So it doesn't make any sense at all to think that we're better than those who still do.

 

But we DO know better, don't we?

As I mentioned earlier, there is truth in the idea that Christians see the world more clearly than non-Christians. 

2 Corinthians 4:4 says that "the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." And 1 Corinthians 2:14 straight-up says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." 

If the minds of unbelievers are truly blinded, as the Bible explicitly says, then they really can't see the world perfectly clearly. 

Yes, Christians have a greater understanding of the truth than non-Christians. But that doesn't mean that we're better than them, and it shouldn't make us look down on them. 

Ephesians 2 is a beautiful summary of salvation, and in it, there are a few things that Paul highlights: we were once dead in our sins and walked in extremely sinful ways, and salvation is a gift of God, "not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:9) 

We cannot boast in our salvation, which is one thing that boasting in our superior understanding really is. 

1 Corinthians 2:8–10 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit reveals all truth. We are not Christians because of our Christianity—we are clear thinkers because, by the grace of God and the grace of God alone, we are Christians. 

 

So what do we do?

Looking down on unbelievers because we're "smarter" than them is, unfortunately, extremely easy to do. (And it doesn't just apply to unbelievers—we look down on anyone we disagree with, Christian or non-Christian alike.) 

I know I've been convicted recently about this in my own life. Pride is a sin that grows so deep it's almost invisible, sometimes. 

So look at your own life. Examine yourself, and do it honestly, even though it's hard. Where are you tempted to look down on others because you think you know better?

Christ loved us unconditionally, something I'm growing more and more thankful for as I realize how dark my own sin really is. And we're called to love people—all people—as Christ loved us. 

So love the people you disagree with, and remember that you're not better than them. You've been saved by God's grace, not your own works. 

What are you going to do with it?