sober judgment

I’m struggling this morning with sober judgment. I know I need to have it, but I’m not sure how.

The reason I need it is to heed Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:3-5 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

So I get the need, and I see the reason, but the actual doing turns out to be surprisingly complex. First of all, sober judgment seems to be the antithesis of thinking too highly of myself. That by itself isn’t too bad; I’ve been told one way or another not to get a big head for most of my life. I get it that usually I’m not as good as I think I am.

Second, the ability to use sober judgment is linked somehow to my faith. Is it the fact of my faith that’s important here – meaning, so long as I have faith I’ll be able to exercise sober judgment? Or does this mean that the quality – soberness, maybe? – of my judgment depends on the strength or depth of my faith? 

Finally, the purpose seems significant to a lot more people than just me, meaning it’s important that I get this right. Paul suggests, using the word “for” to start the sentence, that he’s telling me to do this because there’s something about me that is meant to enhance the body of believers, which I take to mean my local church. 

This comes immediately after the well-known verse about transforming myself by the renewing of my mind, which makes me think this is primarily an intellectual exercise. Like using sober judgment to accurately think of myself is a key part of renewing my mind. 

All that makes me feel like there's something really important here, for me and for my church. In order to find my place in the body, I need to renew my mind, a big part of which is getting rid of these false ideas I may have of my own worth. And the key to doing this is to think of myself with sober judgment. 

So I’m struggling this morning with sober judgment. I know I need to have it, but I’m not sure how. I don’t get what about my judgment tends not to be sober, and how to change that. But it seems like a big enough deal that I’m praying about it.