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Love must be sincere\u2026Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12:16).

A student was meeting with her teacher at a table, having tea. The student said to her master, "I've learned all you have to teach me, except one thing. Please teach me about the ways of God."

The teacher took the teapot and started pouring the student's cup full of tea. Soon the cup was full and began to spill over onto the saucer. But the master continued to pour the tea until it spilled over the saucer and then onto the floor.

The student finally said, "Stop, stop, the tea is spilling over. The cup can't take any more." The teacher then looked at the student and said, "You are so full of yourself that there is no room in your life for God. It is not possible for you to learn the ways of God until you learn to empty yourself."

In his mini exhortation on love, the apostle Paul is laying out the ground work for the young church to get along with outsiders, but also with each other. Jesus had told his disciples that the church would be recognized by its love. If only the church would take this more seriously. In this verse the apostle reminds us of two essentials about living in harmony with one another. They are illustrated with the story about the teacher and student. We are so full of ourselves that God has little room to move us towards love.

Being conceited, is the first aspect; it is being full of oneself. Understand, that conceit can come from two directions, which may indeed be two sides of one coin. The first is that we think so much of our own ideas and abilities that we really don\u2019t have time for anyone else\u2019s.

The other side of the coin comes from a place of insecurity. We try to dominate conversations and swing votes our way, in order to boost our low self esteem. Either way, we have little room for other people and their ideas and abilities. When filled with conceit, we don\u2019t listen to others and tend to get angry when we don\u2019t get our way.

The way forward is to close our mouths and open our ears. The Reformed church has built this into its decision-making process. We are not to come to meetings with our minds made up. Rather, each member comes to listen to all the others. Only after all the opinions have been heard and weighed are decisions supposed to be made. Humility seeks to understand before being understood. It prefers to communicate rather than do battle with words.

The second matter Paul raises here is quite similar, \u201cdo not be proud.\u201d But here Paul speaks about our associates. We all have a tendency to associate with people similar to ourselves. But Christians are called to associate with all, especially with those who may be less important, as measured by our cultural standards.

To attain harmony, we must reject the temptation to think high thoughts about oneself, as though we are a superior breed of Christian. There must be no perches of isolation, but rather mingling with people of lower position.

In his letter to the Philippian believers, Paul reminded them of how Jesus climbed down from His heavenly place to suffer the humiliating death of a criminal\u2026for us. We are to do like wise; but there is a caveat. Its easy for us to help others from an attitude of superiority. True harmony happens when we all see each other as equal and equally valuable and equally gifted. The renewed mind of the Christian that has learned to love, truly sees no distinctions between people.