1 PETER 5:5-6 – Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”
THEME OF THE DAY: DEVELOPING HUMILITY. Before we get far into the topic of humility, we need to establish three things. First, humility is the chief virtue in the Christian life to be developed. Without it, no salvation, no spiritual maturity, and no conforming to the image of Christ. It is that important. Next, humility is not produced by human effort. Yes, today’s scripture commands us to clothe ourselves in humility meaning we are responsible (more on that later), but no amount of self-effort will achieve the character trait of humility and that for two reasons. We are animatedly against it due to the sins of pride and selfishness. We don’t like humility by nature, and no one kills sin, any sin, even pride and selfishness in the strength of self. No one overcomes the power of sin except the Lord Jesus. The other reason we cannot produce humility is because it is an exclusive work of the Holy Spirit with our cooperation. Let’s look at first, our responsibility and then two marks that the Spirit is working humility in our lives.
First, the Christian life is lived on what we may call “dependent responsibility.” We are responsible for obedience to God’s commands, yet we have no ability to obey them. And here is the exciting part. The God who gives commands is also the God who gives the grace to obey them. We find this “dependent responsibility” modeled in the Apostle Paul – 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). Pay attention to the Apostle’s instruction. He worked hard. Very hard. Harder than anyone else. Yet, he says, “It wasn’t me. It was the grace of God with me.” Of course, it was the Apostle Paul working hard, but he did so with the constant awareness and dependency on the power of God’s grace. And that applies to the command Clothe, yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. It depends on us and God’s grace. Confusing? Only if we overthink it. We work in obeying God as if it is all up to us while depending on God’s empowering grace as if it all depends on Him. Now if that is happening in the command to develop humility, here are the two areas the Spirit’s work will appear in our relationships with other people: our thinking of them and speech with and about them.
First, pride is quick to think ill of others with thoughts that are critical, suspicious, condemning, fault-finding, cold, and loveless. It is so unbecoming a Christian and ugly. Humility, however, makes a person think well of others, to see good in others, to edify others, to see more of their own sins than others’. To summarize a mind where the Spirit of God is building humility, is with a person refusing to entertain one unloving, one unedifying, or one unkind thought of another person. Need any more evidence that this must be done by the Spirit of God? On our own we cannot think this way, but grace will empower us to think this way.
The other area humility is taking hold in our lives is our speech. Thomas Charles was an 18th century Welshman God greatly used for His Kingdom. He wrote a book titled Spiritual Counsels. In it, he wrote on humility and penned these words concerning pride and our speech – The language of pride is severe; but that of humility is compassionate. The one is bitter; the other is mild and gentle The one is contemptuous; the other is loving. Pride speaks of the sins of others. To summarize a person with humble speech, they will not talk of anything demeaning, slanderous, hurtful, or unedifying to anyone in person or behind their back.
Humility. So important. Without it, no Christian life, no spiritual growth, and no conformity to the Lord Jesus. May the Lord find us submissive and “soft clay” in His hands as He molds us into His humble image.
PRAYER: “Father, may I not be resistant to Your painful work of revealing my pride so I might grow in humility.”
QUOTE: “Humility is the chief virtue in the Christian life. Without it, we will live more like Pharisees than Christians.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim