HUMILITY

 

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 11:29

When Jesus asked us to learn from Him, the only attribute of Himself that He mentioned was His gentleness and humility. Gentleness or meekness is one of the expressions of humility. In essence, Jesus was asking us to learn just one thing from Him, His humility. For this character attribute to be the only one mentioned by Jesus, it must be very important. I supposed, on this stands the other attributes or virtues of Christ.

What is Humility?

This is an important question for us to answer at this point, so we can understand His instruction and be obedient. Humility was translated in the New Testament from the Greek word ‘Tapeinos’ it means ‘not rising far from the ground’. The following metaphors of the word will help us understand further;

  1. as a condition, lowly, of low degree
  2. brought low with grief, depressed
  3. lowly in spirit, humble
  4. in a bad sense, deporting one’s self abjectly, deferring servilely to others

Apart from the literal translation of the word humility, we can understand more clearly God’s mind on this subject by carefully considering the stories and instructions from scriptures. I admonish you to read carefully till the end so you will receive the message.

The Origin of Sin and the Need for Humility

God is a good God and everything that proceeds from Him is good. However, this truth is in sharp contrast to the facts of life, as evil, which is a product of sin, prevails in the world. Where did sin originate from?

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

(Isa 14:12-16 KJV)

The above portion of scripture suggests the origin of sin. Lucifer, formally one of God’s archangels desired greatness; He wanted to be like God and wanted to ascend to the mount of God. Was his desire wrong? This question is subject to much contention. Judging from the reaction of Jesus when His disciples argued among themselves about who will be the greatest. Jesus never rebuked their desire to be great, rather He took time to teach them how to be great (Luke 22:24 – 27).

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

(Psa 24:3-6 KJV)

Reading through the above verse of scripture, we see that God was giving criteria for those who will ascend to the hill. By this, we see that the desire to ascend is not evil if we follow God’s pattern. With this known, what then was Lucifer’s error? His error was the way he intended to do it. In his thoughts recorded in Isaiah 14:12-16, he kept on saying ‘I will’, which was suggestive of him doing it with his power and strength, which is pride. It’s on pride that all sin stand (pride is the mother of all sin).

The Jesus Example

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

(Joh 17:5 KJV)

Jesus left everything He had with the father and took up the form of a man. The statement ‘with the glory which I had with thee before the world was’ indicates that Jesus did not gain anything new that He did not previously have after He died for humans, for the glory He obtained was the glory He had. So why did Jesus come? I know He came to die for the salvation of the souls of men, but His coming went beyond that. Among the things He achieved on earth was that He did set an example on how to achieve greatness or obtain promotion in the Kingdom. This example was for mankind that He lived among, and Angels who observed His life (1Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 1:12).

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Php 2:5-11 KJV)

The height God exalted Jesus to was the height Lucifer desired to. Jesus obtained it by humility, Lucifer lost out from it and was debased because of pride. In the kingdom, the way up is down. Carefully consider the scripture below to get the truth.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

(Mat 23:12 KJV)

Source of Pride in Humans

  1. From society

Our society is filled with norms, values and systems that are contrary to God’s word. Though these may seem acceptable by people, God may consider some of them to be prideful. So people unconsciously pick up pride from society.

  1. The spirit of pride

When the devil spots greatness in any man, sometimes he sends the spirit of pride to tempt those people. This was part of the temptations Jesus experienced. This spirit works by suggesting prideful ideas as thoughts in the mind of a person. Its intention is to keep the person from attaining the greatness God has for them and make them fall into the devil’s condemnation.

  1. A wrong attitude towards the good gifts and blessings of God.

The devil fell into the sin of pride because of his attitude towards his beauty (Ezekiel 28:17). When we have a wrong attitude towards what the Lord has blessed us with, that gift or blessing may become a source of pride. King Hezekiah showcased the wealth to His Babylonian visitors, and God judged him because of his pride (2 Chronicles 32:24-26). You may ask, who gave Him the wealth? It was God that did. We see God’s gift can become a source of pride, so we need to be careful.

  1. Insecurity

Most proud people are insecure people. Because of their desire to be perceived better than they are, they live in competition with others and always want to be seen better than the next person. This is not the attitude the bible admonished us to have.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

2Corinthians. 10:12

 

How to be Humble

Though pride is learnt unconsciously by people, humility is learnt intentionally. There are several ways that humility can be attained as seen from the scripture. For this article, we will consider just one. I will write about the others in another article.

  1. Beholding God/ meditating on the Word

And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

(Deu 17:18-20 KJV)

 We have been given the mind of Christ at salvation (1Cor. 2:16), this is the mind that made Jesus able to humble himself and be obedient to God. Therefore, every Christian has the ability to be humble. Man is a spirit, he has a soul and he lives in a body (1Thes. 5:23). The entire salvation package is in our spirit (Ephesians 1:3). The salvation of the soul is a process (James 1:21), and the salvation of the body will be fulfilled at the coming of Christ (1Corinthians 15:52). The soul is the seat place of the mind, will and emotions. With the mind we think, with the will we decide and with the emotions we feel. The decision we continually make determines if our actions are prideful or humble before God. What we fill our minds with and the emotions we allow ourselves to feel influences the decision we make with our will. Therefore, if we fill our minds with prideful thoughts, we will make prideful decisions, the reverse is also true. This is despite what Christ has accomplished in our spirit, and it leaves us with a responsibility, meditating on the word of God to fill our minds with God’s thoughts.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

(Pro 23:7 KJV)

As we behold Jesus in the Word by meditation, and we observe His way of life and learn what’s acceptable with Him, we are transformed into His image; we are empowered to walk humbly.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

(2Co 3:18 KJV)

Attributes of Humility from Scriptures

From the stories written in the bible, there are several attributes of humility we can deduce.

  1. Acknowledging your sins/faults before God (2Samuel 12:1-13)
  2. Having a teachable heart (Matthew 18: 1 -4)
  3. Prayer (2 Chronicles 7:14)
  4. Receiving God’s word from whoever He sends (Matthew 18: 5)
  5. Service (John 13: 11 – 12, Matthew 20:25 – 28, 11: 11,12)
  6. Obedience (Jeremiah 43:1,2)
  7. Esteeming other better than yourself (Ephesians 3:8, 1 Cor.15:9 -10, Judges 6:15)
  8. Giving glory to God ( Genesis 41:16)
  9. Sensitivity

Benefits of Humility

From scriptures, there several benefits of humility we can find. Below is a few of them;

  1. It’s the key to greatness (Luke 22:24-26)
  2. It’s the way into God’s presence (Isaiah 57:15, Psalms 15 and 24)
  3. It’s the key to rest (Matthew 11:29)
  4. It delivers you from God judgment (Joshua 9,1Kings 21:29, Genesis 19:14)

 

Thank you all

 

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