Image via Wikipedia Adam & Eve, Russian Lubok woodcut 1792
In the beginning of the existence of man, there came about the evil nature of arrogance. Until today, this fallen nature makes that people and angels are causing disturbance of the vertical axis of the universe. Because there is the false nature of arrogance, the universe does not function as it should.
Lucifer was an angel and therefore put in the position of servant to Adam. When Lucifer put himself above Adam, the archangel was motivated by self-centered desires. Lucifer wanted to have a higher position than he really had, because he felt that to be like God would mean to have more power and therefore to get more satisfaction. Lucifer wanted to get the love that God has, but Lucifer did not want to make the same investment that God had made. Lucifer wanted to take, and not to give.
When you are arrogant, you are leaving your position. This means that you try to give yourself a higher position than you really deserve to have in God’s world.
But God’s order is perfect. The position that you got from God is the right position. So how can you justify to take a higher position than you deserve?
Only because you value higher that which is lower and you value lower that which is higher.
Adam was a higher creation than Lucifer was. Nevertheless, Lucifer was much more knowledgeable about God’s world of creation. Lucifer’s intellect, at the time that the archangel brought Adam and Eve to fall, was more developed than the intellect of Adam and Eve. Still, in God’s eyes, man is a higher creation than angels are. This is mainly because the heart of Adam and Eve, God’s children, is more developed than the heart of angels. The difference between man and angels on the level of intellect and feelings is not as big as is the difference on the level of heart.
Man is created as God’s children. Man is created to take responsibility for the entire creation, just like God Himself feels responsible for all that He created. Angels don’t feel responsible to have dominion over all of creation. Angels were created as specialists. Some angels are very good to perform one task, other angels are very good to perform other tasks. But no angel was ever created to have dominion over the whole cosmos.
Lucifer put himself above Adam, and by doing so, Lucifer wrongly introduced the false nature of arrogance, which means that someone in a lower position puts him- or herself in a higher position than someone who should take that higher position.
How does this happen?
This happens whenever you are putting something that takes a lower position on the vertical axis of the universe on a position too high on this axis. For example, people who value more their ability to perform actions with their physical body could be arrogant in relation to those people who have more intellectual abilities. This is the arrogance of people who have a strong body and feel that they should therefore dominate their surroundings.
Many people feel that they should be leaders in this world because they have a lot of money. This means that such people are very arrogant, because they put their ability to get money, to get creation, above the more elevated abilities of many other people.
When you think that because you have much knowledge, for example about the construction of buildings, or about how computers work, you might feel that you are at the top of the world. When you meet someone with deeper love for God, but maybe with lesser knowledge above construction or computers, you might be tempted to put yourself on a higher place than this person with deeper love for God. And then you are wrong, you are arrogant, and you disturb the order made by God.
Just like Lucifer put his intellectual and spiritual abilities above Adam’s love for God, so all arrogant people are putting something of lesser value in God’s world higher than what God finds more important.
Now you might think to solve the problem of arrogance by trying to act in a humble way. But that won’t solve your arrogance. When you are arrogant, then what you did wrong is that you failed to accept the order in God’s world. You might know how God’s order should be, and bow for people whom you think are standing higher, or admit in a so-called meek way that you know that you are a big sinner. But that doesn’t solve your arrogance at all.
All what you do is to play an act as if you are humble. You are trying to hide your arrogance for others and maybe also for yourself. In that way you do nothing to solve your fallen nature of arrogance.
What you have to do is to first of all go to God. You are God’s child. You are supposed to be object to God because you are God’s creation, you are God’s child. How can you be a child of God if you don’t speak to God, if you don’t love God. You have to begin with accepting the order in the way that God made it. In God’s vertical order, God stands on top, and therefore you first of all have to accept that God is your subject. You should not only accept God as your subject just as a way of philosophy, but you should do this in your personal relation to God. You should only act when God tells you to do so.
Most of all, what you should do to overcome your arrogance is that you must make your own heart in order.
When you committed a sin, than that sin was not first of all a sin of the intellect. You have a heart as most important aspect of your self. And when you sin, you first of all sin with your heart. All sins are first of all sins of the heart. All sins are first of all expressions of hatred against those whom should be loved by you. Each sin is in deepest essence a sin against God. Each sin means essentially that you gave pain to God. And to solve your sins should first of all mean that you solve the fact that you gave pain to God and to others.
When you are arrogant, you do give pain to God and you also give pain to those who are actually loving you and who are therefore, and only therefore, put higher in God’s order. You cannot solve your fallen nature of arrogance with knowledge about God’s principles. You have to change yourself on the level of heart. You have to really love God, which is only possible when you take the right position in relation to God. You have to really love those loved by God and therefore put above you in God’s order. And to love such people, you have to take the right position of loving those people as your subjects. Maybe your subjects of love are little children. But if those little children have more love for God than you have, should they not be respected for this by you? Or should you think that because of your cleverness in whatever field of life you should put yourself above them?
You might be able to dominate the ignorant pure Adams and Eves put above you in God’s world, but then you have to do this with your intellect, with your clever experience. You cannot do it with your original love, because if you would express real love you would love those put above you as your subjects. That is what you have to do to overcome your arrogance.
There are religions in the world where the highest leaders have much knowledge. There is nothing wrong with that if they would also have deepest love for God. Some of those religious leaders speak about love for God. From their intellect and with their mouths they speak about God’s love. But intellectual speaking about love is not love. Intellectual speaking about love while not practicing that love is actually arrogance.
To overcome your arrogance you have to practice and to fulfill the tasks that God has given to you. To do that, to fulfill your tasks entirely, that is demanding real love from you. Then you cannot speak from your knowledge, but you have to act from the bottom of your heart. It is in that way, that you can really learn to love God and overcome the fallen nature of arrogance.
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