Humility

Humility is difficult to define. People often think that a humble person is someone with a sad expression, who shuffles his feet, dresses poorly, has low self-esteem and fasts a lot. We think it’s prideful to think we’re humble. However, this is not the humility of the Bible.

The supreme example of humility is God incarnate, who sustains the world by the Word of His Power. There is no one greater in existence, truly worthy of all honour and power, yet choosing to empty Himself of everything for us.

The key to humility is to get your eyes off yourself and onto God.

The body of Christ must follow Christ’s example of selfless love. The more we love Jesus, the greater capacity we have to love one another; then there comes a common sense of purpose and security in the body. It is not natural for us to consider the needs of others before our own. The only way we’ll be able to do that is if we deepen our relationship with Jesus. Jesus was able to serve others without regard for receiving service in return because He was so completely secure in His identity. We can see this in John 13 where Jesus performs the task of a servant, washing the feet of the disciples.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. John 13:3 (NKJV)

Here, we are told three things that Jesus knew before he took on the role of a servant:

Where he had come from.
All things had been given to him.
He was going to the Father.

In other words, He understood His true identity, true dignity and true significance. He knew who He was, why He had come and where He was going. Likewise, since we are new creations in Christ, we can have the same security. We no longer trust ourselves, but put our trust in Him, and in so doing we receive the abundant life He promised to us (John 10:10). We are told that every spiritual blessing has been given to us (Eph 1:3) and that our eternal destiny is a home in heaven (Phil 3:20-21). When we understand these things and are secure in our place in Jesus, we can act with humility and take on the role of a servant, serving others expecting nothing in return.

We have this security in Jesus purely by the grace of God. This grace is a gift for every man:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Titus 2:11 (NKJV)

Not all men are humble enough to accept that gift of grace. God offers grace to every man but there are some who resist and say, “I do not want it.” Others say, “I’ll work for it.” Grace is grace and works are works and never shall the two meet; you have to come on God’s conditions and that is total grace. In grace, God has abounded toward you (Eph 1:8).

In 1 Peter 5:5 we are told that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. God resists the proud because they will not accept the gift of grace, but the humble are willing to accept their need of grace and they receive it with thankfulness.

During the Great Depression in America there were people who couldn’t find jobs. Many of them would go door to door, looking for work. When someone would open the door the man would say, “I need work. If you have any odd jobs around the house, I’ll do anything if you’ll give me just a little bit of food for my family.” There are stories of the response being, “My family is just sitting down to eat and we have plenty of food. I don’t need to have anything done around the house. Why don’t you just bring your family in and eat with us?” Now a proud man would say, “No! I don’t want your charity, I would rather work for it!” But a humble man would say, “I didn’t work for it, earn it or deserve it, but I’ll take it. Thank you.” A humble man will walk in with his family and sit down to something that he doesn’t deserve.

A humble person is someone who has accepted the gift of grace that God has offered to all men. They are able to receive what they don’t deserve with a thankfulness of heart and they serve others from a position of knowing who they are in Christ, the blessings they have received in Christ and an assurance of their eternal destiny.

Humility is the ability to receive what you don’t deserve.

Let us continually keep our eyes on Jesus as an example of humility and be thankful as we receive everything He has done for us enabling us to give also to others.