MATTHEW 21:5 – “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden
THEME OF THE DAY. THE FRUIT OF LOVE AND THE SOIL OF HUMILITY. If I were to ask, “What is the chief virtue necessary in the Christian life?”, how would we answer. Now the astute Christian is going to immediately reply, “Love is the chief virtue in the Christian life and here is my text proof – So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). And I would smile at you, and say, “Yes, but please read my question again.” I did not ask, “What is the chief virtue in the Christian life?”, but “What is the chief virtue necessary in the Christian life?” Please, don’t think I am mincing words here. If love is the chief virtue or fruit in the Christian life, and it is, there must be something in place, in our hearts, and developing for the fruit of love to grow. This something is in today’s scripture modeled by the Lord Jesus – humility. It is humility that is the chief virtue necessary in the Christian life, or we may say, “It is the soil necessary for the fruit of love to grow.” The antithesis of humility is pride, and when pride enslaves a heart, the soil is hard and love cannot grow.
So, how does one develop this chief virtue necessary for the Christian life lived by love, God’s love flourishing and controlling our lives? Consider three applications. First, we must stay so close to Him that is not only declared to be love, but also the model of humility – the Lord Jesus (1 John 4:7-9; Matthew 11:28-30). What this means practically is we are to safeguard our most important relationship in all of life – that with the Lord Jesus through diligent time in His Word, prayer, and a determined resolve to “be doers of the Word, not hearers only” (James 1:22). Friends, it we neglect the daily seeking of the Lord, to behold His glory and be transformed by that beholding, we will not develop humility and thus lack a life of love (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The next step in developing the fertile soil of humility in the heart to grow the fruit of love is to maintain a constant awareness of our need for grace. There is not a single spiritual thing we may do without grace. We are grace-dependent to enter the Christian life and we are grace-dependent to live the Christian life. The Apostle Paul gives us good instruction on this mindset – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me (1 Corinthians 15:10). Lose sight of our need for grace, the “weeds of pride” will poison the soil of humility in our hearts and no fruit of love will result.
Finally, immerse ourselves in the Gospels. Walk with Jesus through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Observe humility lived out. One author has written, “The whole of the four Gospels are written, and have been put into our hands, in order that we may have continually before our eyes the character of Jesus Christ, both for our justifying faith in Him, and for our sanctifying imitation of Him.” Yes, make reading of the Gospels a “daily scripture diet” and then go and follow Christ in obedience to what we see in Him. As we do, humility will be planted deep in our hearts, and then, once the chief necessary virtue in the Christian life is in place, the chief virtue in the Christian life – love – will bloom.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to be teachable in my spirit as You chip away the hard spots of pride in my life.”
QUOTE: “Humility is the chief virtue in the Christian life not love because if humility is absent, love cannot be present.”