You’ve probably heard the expression, “familiarity breeds contempt,” but what does it mean and does the Bible have anything to say about it? Let me start by giving you the origins of the phrase.

The idea behind this expression has been around for thousands of years. In ancient Rome, the writer Publilius used the expression. Over a thousand years later, Pope Innocent III repeated the expression. The English writer Geoffrey Chaucer used this expression in his work Tale of Melibee, in the 1300s.  Okay, so it’s been around for a long time, but what does it mean? The longer one knows someone, the more likely it is that he or she will discover negative things about the other person. This can also apply to things. If a person does something for a long time, he or she might grow to dislike or hate it.

Familiarity is directly related to the word “family,” which makes sense since we are most familiar with those in our own family. They are familiar or well-known to us. We have an intimate relationship with those in our family. So why does familiarity breed or lead to contempt? It’s because we begin to take the familiar for granted. It no longer excites, amazes, or intrigues us. It’s become “ho hum.”

Here are a couple of interesting definitions for contempt, “the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn” and “disregard for something that should be taken into account.” If we hold contempt for a person or thing, we no longer treat that person as special. We treat him as ordinary, mundane.

That’s exactly how the people in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth treated Him. Listen to the words of Matthew 13:54-58,

And coming to His hometown He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, and in his own household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

The Son of God came to His own and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). True for those living in Nazareth. True for the nation of Israel. They treated Him with contempt and called for His blood (Matthew 27:25). So, too, in the world in which we live. He’s treated with contempt and His name is used as a curse word. But not you and I. Jesus is special to us. Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. “. . . There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus is precious to those who love Him,

Irv