The Battle of Pride vs. HumilitySample

What Humility Is Not

How would you define humility?

For a long time, I believed humility meant denying having any strengths, personality, or desires. One of the reasons we struggle with humility is that we cannot define it well, so we do not even know what we are aiming for.

This is where Jesus can help us.

In John 8, Jesus does something that would have been heresy to a religious Jew:

He equates Himself with God.

Jesus describes Himself as someone who existed before Abraham and then uses the same idea of “I AM” as God used to introduce Himself to Moses in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14).

As you can imagine, this kicked up a firestorm and got plenty of people mad at Jesus. Imagine how arrogant this would have sounded to people.

Yet, in Philippians 2, we are told that Jesus was humble.

How is it possible for Jesus to be humble and make a bold claim to be God, offending many people in the process?

In the book, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren writes, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself...”

Read that statement again.

Jesus could make the claim in today’s passage and still be humble because what He said about Himself was true.

It is good for you to use your strengths and skills. Humility does not mean denying you can do something. It does not mean denying your identity as a man.

However, humility does mean that you recognize every ability you have is because God has given it to you.

It also means you see those strengths as coming under the direction of God Himself.

In Philippians 2, Paul tells us to adopt Jesus' attitude. Jesus knew He was God, but He did not see that identity as something to exploit. He did what the Father wanted Him to do by coming to earth and becoming obedient to the point of death.

That’s how Jesus modeled humility for us.

Humility develops by having a clear perspective of who God is. Spend less time looking inward and more time looking upward.

The most humble men have a very high view of God and see themselves as men made in God’s image to do God’s will.

This is where humility begins.

Prayer: Father, help me value the life and gifts You have given to me, but help me see all of them as coming from You and to be used for Your glory. Amen.

Reflection: Where have you had a flawed definition of humility? What steps could you take to develop a better perspective of what it means to be humble?