Arrogant?

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

 - From Malachi 4

Now, I know a lot of arrogant people. I might be a little arrogant, myself. I've probably caught everyone I know in an arrogant moment, or two. And so have you, the reader. 

Maybe we're all arrogant from time to time. But just like telling a lie, once, does not make you a liar (or does it?) we may be able to make the claim stick - you may stumble and say or do something arrogant, once in a while. But that does not make you an arrogant person, especially you people known to be quite humble and gentle!

We get our fill of arrogance after a while. When someone is called "arrogant," it is never meant as a compliment. It's an insult. We don't want to be thought of as "arrogant."

• I tell it like it is.
• I am who I am and I'll never change.
• I don't suffer fools.
• I get what I want.
• I get results.
• I don't care what people think of me.

Famous last words of a fool. 

But Malachi writes, inspired by Holy Spirit, that all the arrogant will be stubble, i.e., burned up.

Does one act of arrogance make you arrogant? Perhaps we should reconsider that. And perhaps we should reflect every now and then, on whether or not we could easily be caught making any of the statements in the bullet list above. 

The arrogant are placed in the same context as evildoers. The notion that we are to become as children, humble, servants, weak in the world (but strong in Christ) merits that we constantly hold ourselves up to God's standard. Perhaps we have not fully arrived yet . . . but we can make progress.