How Tall Are You

Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Twelve
HOW TALL ARE YOU?

Scripture Reading: verses 3-5 (Darby translation)

FOR I SAY, THROUGH THE GRACE WHICH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME, TO EVERY ONE THAT IS AMONG YOU, NOT TO HAVE HIGH THOUGHTS ABOVE WHAT HE SHOULD THINK; BUT TO THINK SO AS TO BE WISE, AS GOD HAS DEALT TO EACH A MEASURE OF FAITH. FOR, AS IN ONE BODY WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS, BUT ALL THE MEMBERS HAVE NOT THE SOME OFFICE; THUS WE, [BEING] MANY, ARE ONE BODY IN CHRIST, AND EACH ONE MEMBERS ONE OF THE OTHER.

We must go slowly through this passage, because Christian conduct is tremendously important to all who profess the name of Christ, especially in an age like the present, when the testimony of the lives of so many Christians is at such a low standard. Notice how verse three is linked with our thinking.

Verse 2 has set forth the necessity of the Christian being transformed by the renewing of the mind so that he may prove what is the will of God. Then the third verse continues the same truth. Paul is exhorting us all not to have high thoughts above what we ought to think, but to be wise in our thinking, according as God has dealt to each the measure of faith. In the common version it is rendered to “think soberly.” However, that is a rather imperfect thought because we so often associate sobriety with long-faced pessimism. The Christian should not be a sober person in that respect. The Darby translation renders it: “think so as to be wise.” In this respect, sobriety is taking account of ourselves according to the measure of faith.¹

Faith is God’s measuring stick. To know how tall we are spiritually we must use the measuring stick of faith. Our real stature as a Christian depends upon how much faith we have. Faith is another term for confidence in God. It is the acceptation of what God says in His Word. “Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the firm conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). God speaks in His Holy Word; man believes and obeys; that is faith.

The apostle is now anxious that Christians should not think of themselves too highly, which is our natural tendency.² Men have various measuring sticks in order to size up other men. God has only one measuring stick – the measure of faith. And that faith is a gift from God, not something acquired by our own works. It is according as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. This touches upon a very important truth for every Christian.

Men have many measuring sticks for use on one another. We are apt to think of ourselves according to our height intellectually – one has more education, experience, etc. He who is mentally alert, bright and capable is apt to look down on the person with a more deliberate mind and a slower intellect. Indeed this measure has taken hold so much in our present age that even among God’s people we find it is those who are intellectually smart and bright who are invariably in the ascendancy. This should not be. The greatest Christians spiritually are those who have faith, those who accept the Word of God with confidence and act accordingly.

Then there is the measuring stick of social prestige, which unfortunately has far too much importance among God’s people, ending in cliques and circles among the people of God. How often has a body of believers associated in groups according to their social standing, going around visiting each other, while shutting out the Lord’s dear people who do not measure up in social prestige – all contrary to the will of God. Perhaps it contributes pleasure to those who indulge in it, but this is no reason for its indulgence. In this chapter, Paul is setting forth that we are all members one of another.³ We are all on the same plane, and the only distinction which one Christian may have superior to another is “according to the measure of the gift of faith.” Yes, the biggest Christians are those who believe God with the greatest confidence.

Then there is the other unfortunate measuring stick which is used in our society, the measuring stick of worldly goods, wealth, prosperity in material things. How often in an assembly of God’s people those who have most money are most important and have the largest say among so-called “elders” or “leaders,” and they control the destinies of the people of God in ecclesiastical life. Of course, the Lord is upon the throne and in the long run He controls everything. We mention these facts in order to bring home this point: let us not think of ourselves too highly, but so as to be wise according to the measure of the gift of faith. The man of faith is the one to be reckoned with in any sphere in any day. It is not the man of wealth, social prestige, intellect, aggressiveness or any other human attainment. Man attains true greatness when he has implicit confidence in the Lord and will be guided by God’s Word alone in spite of what men may have to say or do to the contrary.

Thus we see our true stature is according to our faith and because our faith is at best so feeble, we are all made very small. The Lord reminded His disciples if they had faith as a mustard seed they could move mountains. The man who can take God at His Word and launch forth in full confidence can overcome any difficulty. The disciples had fished all night and caught nothing, but when the Lord Jesus told them to let down the nets for a draft, Peter said, “Nevertheless at Thy Word we will let down the net.” When the net was let down it encompassed a great catch of fish. The Lord used the plural, “nets,” but Peter let down only one. Think what a catch they would have taken if they had let down all their nets. It is only when we do precisely as we are told by God Himself in His Word that we shall find the pathway open up before us, and with God leading we become mighty in accomplishment. It is the path of the will of God.

Then we must remember the Christian career is not one of striving to outdo each other, so Paul reminds us:

As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other.

Here is the Church of our Lord in its most intimate aspect, the Body of Christ. It is an organism compared to the human body, in which every single member is a part of the whole, expected to perform in coordinate functioning with every other member. As we think of this marvelous figure of the union of God’s people to one another and to their Head in heaven, how sad is the aspect of the Church today, broken into so many fragments, each with its own proud denominational name, each with its own organizational structure, pretending to be a replica of the whole. In one body there are many members. True believers are members of the one body and so members of one another. We ought to keep this practically in mind in these days of sad religious defection, where the enemy of our souls is seeking to destroy the unity of the people of God. The only true unity is the unity of the Body of Christ and the only feature that distinguishes one member from another in importance is the measure of faith or confidence in God.

Footnotes:
¹ Even after Christ is enthroned in the heart, the old mental habits and value-judgments of the natural man, the most persistent and pernicious of human sins, are prone to reassert themselves. The body is relatively easy to bring under control; but the pride, ambition, conceit, vainglory and self-love of the mind can only be driven out by the filling of the personality with the “mind of Christ” who “made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:5f), thus sacrificing the very thing to which the natural human mind clings most tenaciously. In this verse, Paul was still dealing with the problem of getting a new mind into Christians. Paradoxically, even the great spiritual emoluments of Christian service, the achievement of a degree of human righteousness as viewed by human eyes, the gaining of respectability and reputation among fellow mortals, all of the rewards and honors of godly living, even such things as these, quite easily, and often do, lead to pride, conceit, arrogance, and self-righteousness, which are totally abhorrent to God. It cannot be doubted that this very fact led to the fantastic emphasis in this epistle to the effect that nobody ever deserved salvation. Even the fulfillment of conditions upon which God gives salvation cannot merit the gift. Salvation is the gift of God, and only that, even though no one may receive it while spurning the conditions upon which it is freely given.
² This was the primary sin of Israel. They fell into the thinking prohibited here, a lapse which led at last to their tragic hardening. In chapter 11, Paul strongly warned against the same violation in the Gentiles, and that warning is in view here. In this recurrence of the warning, he plainly forbade that conceit which so naturally rises in the minds of people who, through God’s mercy, are permitted to enjoy some little distinction of faith and piety. Despite the warning, Paul’s admonition was not directed to the utter negation of self, nor the sinful depreciation of the noble endowments God has granted mortal man; but it strikes a perfect balance, admitting that it is right and proper for one to think highly of himself, but not more highly than becomes a sinner without merit of salvation, and certainly not so highly as to produce any conceit that might arise from a comparison of his own gifts with those of his fellow Christians.
³ These verses touch upon the same view of the body of Christ that Paul outlined in the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, where it is declared that there “is but one body.” All Christians are part of the same entity. Since Christians are all members of one body and therefore intimately joined in one communion and fellowship with each other, the savage competition for honors and preferments should give place to loving concern on the part of every member for every one of the others. The various gifts, abilities, and “offices,” or functions, as distributed among the members of Christ’s body should not become the occasion of jealousy, envy, and deprecation on the park of the “have not’s,” nor should arrogance, pride, conceit, and self-importance mar the attitude of the “have’s.” To use the analogy that Paul used in 1 Corinthians, it would be as logical for the foot to be jealous of the ear, as for Christians to corrupt their love of one another through pride, envy or jealousy. “In Christ” ... is a key phrase in the book of Romans. Those alone who have been “baptized into Christ” are truly in Him; and this does not overlook the absolute necessity of faith and repentance also. Can it really be said of any man who will not be baptized, as Christ commanded all people to be – can it truly be said of such a man that he truly believes in Christ? Let every man answer that one for himself.