Learning To Be Humble

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly, To love ^[a]mercy, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah6:8

Pride: a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements,

First, let me say that we live in a very proud and egotistical age. People are pushing themselves and elevating themselves. The current world is all about self and exalting self. It is about my rights, my truth, the focus is on self. In the Roman empire, pride was lauded as a virtue, and humility was seen as a weakness much as it is in our society today. Everybody is obsessed, it seems, with self-glory, self-esteem, self-promotion, and pride. We have people celebrating sin and calling it “Pride Parade.” Our whole system is based on ambition and pride. Unfortunately, this mindset has crept into church and Christians. We have prosperity preachers who think God’s only design for us is to be healthy, wealthy, prosperous, happy, satisfied, fulfilled, and so forth. There is no teaching on suffering. There is no mention of sacrifice. And in the process, we have begun to exalt pride. We’ve given place to achievement, self-fulfillment, self-glory, and self-promotion, and we’ve started to forget the whole subject of humility. When you look at the early church, they had a reverence for the word of God. There was a humility, a meekness within the church that gave it great power. Why are so many Christians today living a defeated life? We have stopped being humble. We have let the culture of today sip into our spiritual growth, and pride is destroying our blessings. Humility is crucial for us to learn for the victorious Christian life. 

Let’s look at what the Bible tells us about pride to realize the devastating effect it has. We often don’t look at pride as a big deal, but pride is the devil’s sin. It is an ugly sin, and the devil fell because of pride. It was Lucifer’s pride that sought to dethrone God. It aims to replace Him with self. And pride grips every human heart. The Bible speaks about pride very clearly. “A proud heart is a sin,” it says in Proverbs 21:4. “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord,” it says in Proverbs 16:5. “And the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogance.” God resists the proud, James tells us in chapter 4. In Isaiah 23:9 it says He brings the proud into contempt. In Psalm 31:23, it says the proud will be recompensed – that is judged. In Exodus 18:11, the proud will be subdued. Psalm 18:27, they’ll be brought low. They’ll be abased, Daniel 4:37. They’ll be scattered, Luke 1:51. They’ll be punished, Malachi says in chapter 4 verse 1. According to the Bible, pride is an abomination just like homosexuality. God opposes the proud. He does not say that about murderers or adulterers.

In contrast, humility is a virtue in the Bible and is exalted as a virtue. In Psalm 138:6, it says, “Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respects unto the lowly.” In Psalm 10:17, “Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble.” Proverbs 15:33, “Before honor is humility. Colossians 3:12 says that we are to put on humility. First, Peter 5:5 says we are to be clothed with humility. Ephesians 4:1 and 2, we are to walk in humility. Before honor is humility. This is so contrary to the world philosophy we live in, which looks at humility as weakness. 

Humility is the foundation of the Christian life, along with faith and obedience. These are a must spiritual attitudes for a fruitful Christian life. At the very heart of Christian walk, comes this matter of the ideal of humility. If there was anything true about the Judaism of Jesus’ time, it was that it bred spiritual pride. The Pharisees displayed their external religion, and expected the admiration of the crowd. When they made their donations, they blew a trumpet, or when they did their fasting, they went into public and through public places and threw ashes on their heads, that everyone might see how devout they really were. Throughout the Bible,e we see the fall goes with the pride and humble are elevated. Cain’s pride caused him to murder his brother. Pharoah’s pride caused suffering and death for his people. Naman’s pride almost caused his healing. King Saul lost his kingdom. Goliath was proud of his strength and fell. King Nebuchadnezzar lived like an animal because of his pride. I can go on and on with names in the Bible and history who were destroyed because of their pride. Today, we struggle with the same issues. We like to display our diplomas, awards, our trophies and show off our wealth by emblems on our cars.

Like the Pharisees of Jesus times, there is spiritual pride as well. Jews were very proud of their heritage and looked down on others. Jesus had the most forceful criticism for them, and today church leaders are no different than Pharisees of that day. An informative lesson on religious pride from the New Testament is found in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke18:9–14). It is directed at those who trusted in their titles and looked down on others. It addresses spiritual pride, the subtle and dangerous temptation Christians fall into. Many times we have the attitude of the Pharisee when we pray. Jesus addresses spiritual pride throughout His ministry. If you study the Beatitudes, look at the qualities of blessed people, they are poor in spirit, mourn, meek, hungry, and thirsty. All of those are characteristic of various facets of humility. The blessing belongs to people who know they have nothing, who have realized their absolute failure. And, of course, we are not talking about material things here, but spiritual ones. It doesn’t belong to the people who believe they have achieved great religious status. Like the Pelican in the above parable, we need to kneel at an altar and say God I am sinner, Help me. 

We need to learn from John the Baptist, who said, “I must decrease, and He must increase” Jesus called him the greatest man. He had a great ministry, and thousands were following him, yet as soon as Jesus came on the scene, he directed people to Jesus. He MUST increase. Is this the attitude we have? In the old testament, Jonathan teaches us a great lesson in humility. He was the heir apparent to the throne, but he accepted David as the king and gave full support. We have a hard time giving up our seats in the church or step down from a position. 

We have been talking about pride and humility side by side. By showing you the dangers of pride, I want you to see the necessity of humbleness. Pride is a life long struggle, and don’t think for a minute; you can be proud only regarding worldly matters. Like Pharisees, we can be proud of our Bible knowledge, our spiritual lives, and we can start looking down on those who might not be as dedicated. In James 4:10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. The world strives for the top spot, accolades, and recognition. Bible tells us If we humble ourselves, God lifts us up. How remarkable is that promise? Yes, you can achieve certain success by your strength, but if we just humble ourselves, God lifts us up. Peter tells us God opposes the proud but gives favor to the humble. Would you want God to be against you, or would you like him to lift you up? The most excellent example of humility is, of course, is no other but Jesus. He laid down His heavenly glory and came down to earth to die for us. As he was hanging on the cross, He had the power to destroy all, but He submitted to God’s will and forgave those who were hanging Him. What a display of humility. 

It was pride that caused Lucifer to be cast out of heaven and Adam and Eve to be cast out of Eden. And it is pride that will be our undoing if we tolerate it in our lives. The danger of pride is a sobering reality that each of us needs to ponder. Humility is essential to victorious Christian living. Bible is very clear about the dangers of pride and blessings of humbleness. A true test of humility is, are you more concerned about sin in your life or sin in other’s life? Are you more worried about the needs of others, or you put your needs first? Jesus became sin for us so that we may have life. You know, when you read the attributes of the fruit of the spirit, humility is not listed. Do you know why? Because to have fruit, you need soil, and humility is the soil on which fruit grows. Humility is our greatest need for spiritual growth. Isa 57:15 tells us He revives the heart of the humble. Start a revival in your spiritual life today. Humble yourself.