For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Read Chapter 6
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
It is true, and no one is unaware of it, that if we consider honestly our acts and thoughts we find ourselves superior to no one and cannot easily pass judgment on another. For the person who is puffed up as if he were something special is misled, since he does not know that humility becomes a means of growth. For he does not have before his eyes the words and deeds of the Savior, who, though he be Lord of all, humbled himself so as to give us a pattern that we might follow should we wish to grow. If we were to exalt ourselves, we would stumble as a result of the ignorance of a heart elated by the hope of presuming to be more worthy of praise. .
For if a man think himself to be something, &c. If a man is proud of his superior spirituality, and despises his brother, and treats him harshly for sinning—especially for Judaising—he is nothing, and so he deceiveth himself.
This [verse] can be read in two distinct ways…. The sense of the first is “If someone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” The second is deeper and more meaningful to me: “If someone thinks he is something, by the very fact of thinking himself something and judging himself, not from his love toward his neighbors but from his own work and labors, contented with his own virtue, he himself becomes nothing through this very arrogance and is his own deceiver.” … The meaning of this passage is also linked to circumcision and the law in the following way: One who is spiritual yet has no compassion for his neighbor, despising the lowly because of his own selfelevation, is his own deceiver, not knowing that the spirit of the law adds up finally to loving one another. .
Here again he reflects on their arrogance. He that thinks himself to be something is nothing, and exhibits at the outset a proof of his worthlessness by such a disposition.
