After hearing a sermon by the Christian-rapper KB, I really just sat and meditated on the idea of humility and what that really meant for my life. To start out this conversation about humility, I want to first stress what pride looks like, and what false humility looks like because those are the two big ends of the spectrum that seem to plague most Christians when it comes to this thing called humility and what that looks like in their lives. To do this I want to look in Romans 12 verses 1-3. In these verses, Paul writes to the Romans and it states:
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you."
So those verses are pretty well known, especially that 2nd verse there about not conforming to the ways of the world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Yea that is cool and I love that verse, but I really want to focus on the 3rd verse here today because that points out some awesome things about pride/humility that are really essential. In verse 3, it says that we are not to look at ourselves as highly as we ought to, but think with sober judgement, in accordance with the faith God has given you. Alright, lets break that down looking at what he says about pride.
Pride is defined as "pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or believed to reflect credit upon oneself." Just based off of that definition we can link that to the verse where it says that we shouldn't do that. Isn't that true though? We as followers of Christ are not called to put any credit on ourselves because we don't deserve it right? Isn't that the core belief of Christianity? That we deserved death, but were saved by the blood/death of Jesus. The question that we as followers need to ask ourselves then is, "What of our successes did we do by ourselves?" I want you to reflect on that right now. What of your triumphs was by your own doing? The answer to that question is NONE. Why you ask? Because as believers in God we firmly believe that by GOD'S GRACE we are able to do the things we are able to, not by our doing, but by HIS. On the contrast though, ask yourself this, "What failures are you responsible for?" We sin because we choose to. We fail and falter because we are broken and we are human. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE. So we have no grounds to be proud, right?
We have no grounds to boast in ourselves, yes, but we also have no grounds to beat down on ourselves either, and to down-play ourselves because you know what people? GOD CREATED YOU. He made you the way you are and he said "it is good." So why are you beating down on yourself? He loves you. Jesus loves you. He died on a chunk of tree so that you would not have to beat down on yourself anymore, but to celebrate it with Him. That is the gospel. When you beat-down on yourself and let yourself believe those things that is the opposite of pride, but is still not what God wants when he speaks through Paul in that Romans 12:3 verse.
Paul uses the words "sober judgement," which means that we should think of ourselves in this light. Not beating ourselves down and not taking a compliment, but being confident in the foundation we stand on in Christ Jesus. He also does not want us to think of ourselves as higher than any other people at all because all the things we do and all the successes we have are credited to the grace of God, our Father, and not to ourselves. Humility is finding that balance mentally, and having that mentality of surrender. Live with that understanding. The understanding that we can't do it without Jesus in our lives, and that without Him we are nothing. Let that understanding bring us peace, and show us what humility is all about. I will end this post with a quote from C.S. Lewis that says, "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” Take the time to look up, and live with balanced humility.
Father, we come to you today with a heavy heart. We realize that we look at our successes and our achievements here on Earth, and we let those glorify ourselves instead of letting it glorify you. We just come to you today, and ask that you help us to have that balanced humility. That we may not think of ourselves as up on a pedestal or above anybody else at all, but realize that we cannot do this life without you at the helm and we surrender the control and the glory and all of it over to you to do your will onto. Let us also not beat ourselves down in false humility because that is not what you want from us either. You love us where we are at, and because of your Son dying on that cross we are able to stand firm and confidently not in ourselves, but in you Lord. We boast in your most holy of names, and not in our own. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
