Christian Humility: or Knowing Your Place Under God

 

Christianity makes wild claims. For instance: we claim to be in direct contact with God through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Himself residing in us. The claim: we know how God wants us to behave. Other religions claim to be in touch with nature or some sort of ether or something, but to have the kind of intercessor we have, well that is like no other faith-based thinking.

We claim that some people will go to heaven, those who believe in Jesus; and that some “sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:12)”

We claim that God will take vengeance on those well deserving of it. That will be none of us, even though we are as deserving of the wrath of God as anybody.

And the list goes on.

That is why all the apostle writers in the New Testament talk about proper humility in light of the amazing claims we make.

So, let’s look at 1 Peter 5:5-6: (NASB)

⁵ You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.

⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, ⁷ casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 

It is interesting to note here that Peter equates boasting pride with anxiety. If you are a boaster, ultimately it will give you anxiety because you are always trying to be better.

Humility will ultimately give you peace.

Humility to Peter is knowing your place, but more than that really. It is knowing your place and being glad for it. Losing your prejudices and relishing in the idea that you’ve much to learn and grow from. Especially from older, wiser Christians.

Perhaps the best definition of Christian humility is given by the apostle Paul in Philippians 2, starting in verse 5: (NASB)

⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

According to these verses, humility is obedience to the point of dying to self and living for God. We do, after all, make the claim that God is speaking directly to us and He is NOT going to tell us exactly what we want to hear most of the time.

The good kind of pride is doing it God’s way. As Jesus did. He could have chosen to do it another way, and that was His struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, but instead, Jesus chose God’s way:

“Not my will, but thine by done.”