1 Corinthians 10:12 (ESV Strong's)
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Subject: Pride and overconfidence
It is so easy in our life to have confidence in our own abilities. We are even encouraged at an early age of life to have confidence by parents, teachers and coaches. An air of confidence is what separates people into leadership and follower-ship. We often replace fearing and timid leaders with confident leaders. The church at Corinth was a confident group of believers. They had taken their Giftedness and boasted about it. They were proud of their standing in the church. They were proud of a lot of areas of their walk. Paul is writing to them in chapter ten to warn them about the pitfalls that happened to the Nation of Israel. They are the same pitfalls that can happen to them. Paul has just outlined several areas where the Israelites failed and wants them to learn these lessons. In fact, he has just told them twice, the Israelites had these failures happen so that the Corinthian church would have examples for their life and learning (10:6, 11). In the above verse Paul stresses to them that in this very difficult time of the world (much like ours today) we need to see that "our" strength is not enough to sustain us in troubled times. Paul is about to tell them that their only hope is God's faithfulness (10:13). When we do good we are puffed up in pride and that is the first step to the journey of destruction. Paul is giving us the theme of Proverbs: Pride goes before the fall and a haughty spirit before destruction. Overconfidence is a sin that can't creep into a believers life. It steals the glory from God and hinders His equipping us for further service.
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