Familiarity breeds contempt

‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. This is quite a well known saying, and sadly, it is all too often true. We often take for granted the people who are closest to us. Jesus was often disregarded and even despised by those who knew Him the best. ‘He’s just the son of a carpenter’, people would say as they dismissed His words and despised His instruction.

There is an interesting account in the Bible when Jesus was teaching in a house. We don’t know whose house this was for sure, but in the lead up to this passage, the Gospel of Mark says that Jesus had gone home and a crowd had gathered. Mark 3:20. So it may have been His family’s house, or at least the place where He was staying with them. As Jesus was teaching, His mother and His brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to Him. We could ask the very obvious question: Why were they outside when everyone else was inside listening to what Jesus had to say? Why were those who should have been the closest to Him, the furthest away?

Perhaps Jesus’ family had become so familiar with His teaching that they no longer considered it important to listen to Him. And they obviously didn’t believe that all the people in the house needed to hear Him either. They were quite willing to interrupt and stop Him. Maybe they were upset that Jesus had brought so many people into their house. We don’t really know why they wanted to talk with Him, but the irony of the situation does not escape us. Instead of being in the house listening to Him, they were outside demanding that He come and listen to them. What could they possibly need to say to the Lord and Saviour of this world? They should have been inside the house, hanging off His every word! They should have had the same attitude as the apostle Peter when he said, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ John 6:68.

Sometimes we don’t know how privileged we are to live in a country where we are free to go to church, worship the Lord together, and hear His word preached. There is another old proverb that says, ‘The closer a person is to the church, the further a person is from God’. This is not scriptural in any way, and in fact, the reverse should be true. The church is the Lord’s house. It is the place where He meets us and speaks to us. This proverb only has substance if the church loses its purpose and becomes an institution that is preoccupied with vain traditions. Or conversely, it has substance if a person has become so familiar with the church that they no longer value the word that is proclaimed and the relationships that are built.

The book of Proverbs says, ‘One who is full tramples a honeycomb, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet’. Prov 27:7. The moment we think we are ‘full’ as Christians, we will begin to despise the very words and relationships that bring us life. We will begin to trample the things that we should be holding most dear. In every area of our lives we should be aware that familiarity always has the potential to breed contempt. This will be true in our families. And it will also be true in the church. We should always be hungry for the word of God and relationship with other believers. Jesus was very clear as His mother and brothers stood outside. He looked around the house and said, ‘Whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother’. Mark 3:35.

David Baker

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Feature Articles
March 2010

First Place

In and out

Facing our fears

First love

Fronting up!

Are you the one?

Seek Him first

The first and the best

When the axe is blunt

Come home

Familiarity breeds contempt