Love Is Not Arrogant

The word “arrogant” means “to puff up, to inflate.” It isn’t just someone who verbalizes pride, but someone who is thinks they are a hotshot. It is someone with a prideful demeanor or prideful swagger. While love says, “I wish I could know all about you”, arrogance says, “I bet you wish you knew me” or “I’m better than you” or “here is who I am.” Arrogance is big-headed and love is big-hearted. Arrogance is someone who minimizes their sins and failures and maximizes their victories or successes.

John Piper reminds us that “We all love to be made much of. We like to be admired. We like it when people notice our successes and miss our failures. We like it when we hear people say nice things about us. But we don’t like it when people make fun of us or criticize us or laugh at us or humiliate us. That is, it does not speak much about itself and is not puffed up with its achievements or too concerned about its hurts. Love is other-directed, not self-consumed.”

Boasting is verbalizing pride; arrogance is accepting yourself as important and not doing anything to downplay others praise or flattery but allowing it to puff you up even bigger than your ego is. Arrogance has often led men to great falls – “Pride goes before destruction,and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov 16:18).

Consider John the Baptist. Even before Jesus arrived, John the Baptist realized that the very trying of Jesus’ sandals were a place of unworthiness (John 1:27). Sandals were probably just a piece of animal hide and a few strings. So as you could imagine, feet would get extremely dirty. The lowest job was that of untying someone thong on their sandal. Because feet were so dirty, only the lowest servants would even stoop to untie the sandal of someone. And what John is saying is this: Jesus Christ is so above me that I am not even worthy to untie to his dirty sandal.

John the Baptist was dumbfounded that Jesus to be baptized by him. He never said, “Jesus is lucky to have a faithful prophet like me.” He never told the crowds later, “Come get baptized by me – the baptizer of Jesus.” No, he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). That is not arrogance.

Love is not arrogant.