Chapter 29. True and False Humility. Lord, make me childlike; deliver me from the urge to compete with another for place or prestige or position. A. W. Tozer. When we reach out to live the kingdom life, it is so easy to develop spiritual pride. That's why humility is such an essential quality. As we become more and more obedient to New Testament commands, it's easy to exalt ourselves in our own minds.
For that reason, Jesus warns us, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 14:11. James tells us, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6. One of the reasons why Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees so strongly was their lack of humility. We cannot expect to have God's approval and favor if we're not humble. Yet we can't cultivate humility if we don't know what it is. And that's where the problem begins.
The world has little concept of true godly humility. To be sure, the world disapproves of people who are arrogant and conceited. But the world's answer to arrogance is mere skin-deep modesty. Let me give you an example. Greg Glorious. Greg Glorious is a talented professional athlete, but he imagines he's the greatest athlete in the world. He thinks the other athletes he competes against are nowhere in his class. Although Greg is filled with enormous pride, he is also well-mannered.
So in public, he graciously praises those athletes he competes against. On television, he frequently minimizes his own accomplishments and enlarges those of other athletes. So the world sees Greg Glorious as a very humble man. The world cares very little about what is in Greg's heart as long as he behaves modestly and humbly in public. Greg is not a hypocrite, at least not by the world's standards. He is behaving according to the world's code of conduct.
The world doesn't care if he internally takes a lot of pride in his accomplishments and feels he's better than others. In fact, most people would say that it's good that he has high self-esteem. Godly Humility. In contrast to the world, God isn't fooled by what we say. He knows what goes on inside our hearts. To the world, the outside is paramount. To God, the inside is foremost. So what is biblical or godly humility? It means to truly hold a modest opinion of our own importance.
Godly humility has little to do with what we say but everything to do with what we are. Humility's twin sisters are lowliness and meekness. Lowliness and meekness are not qualities the world values highly. Paul aptly describes true godly humility in his letter to the Philippians. "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4. Artificial Humility. Sadly, it's not just people of the world who don't understand godly humility. Many Christians don't understand it either. When we search Christian literature for a definition of humility, we typically find explanations like this one. Spiritually, one abases himself because he realizes his sinfulness, and therefore he is willing to depend on God to meet his needs.
Millions of professing Christians meet that definition of humility. However, it's merely a theological doctrine to which they give mental assent. It has little to do with true godly humility. Lots of Christians who are not humble recognize their fallen nature and see their utter need to rely on God for salvation. But true godly humility is a quality of the heart, not a theological doctrine. Let me illustrate what I mean. The Trials of Brother Phil.
Brother Phil pastors Grace Metropolitan Church in a suburban community. Although he loves serving the Lord, he has discovered that pastoring a church can bring enormous trials. When he first came to Grace Metropolitan Church, he thought he was pastoring an extremely humble congregation. That's because, to a person, the members of the congregation testify that they acknowledge their own sinfulness and unworthiness before the Lord.
However, Brother Phil has since learned that holding to such doctrines has nothing to do with real humility. Let me give you a few examples. First, there was the issue with Simon's sin. Simon will tell you that he is utterly a sinner, that no good dwells in him at all. In fact, he never tires of declaring to everyone that he is unable to do anything good. He is simply a sinner saved by grace. However, one day Brother Phil called on Simon to talk with him about a particular sin in Simon's life.
Brother Phil thought this would be a non-confrontational conversation since Simon so regularly proclaims what a sinner he is. However, to Phil's surprise, Simon was highly offended that the pastor would believe that there were any failings in his life. In fact, he was so upset that he withdrew his membership and now attends another church. Sylvia Shrew is another member of Grace Metropolitan Church.
She often testifies at the weekly prayer meetings about how she can scarcely believe that Jesus could love such a sinner as herself. She tells others about how unworthy she is and that there is nothing in her that she could glory about. However, one day she called on Brother Phil to discuss problems in her marriage. She spewed forth a litany of complaints about her husband and his many faults. The pastor listened sympathetically and commiserated with her.
He then tactfully pointed out some of Sylvia's character flaws and tried to help her see that there was fault on both sides. Sylvia responded in utter disbelief. "She has character flaws? She is responsible for some of their marriage problems? Not a chance." She stormed out of the counseling session and began gossiping about Brother Phil to others in the church. Brother Phil had appreciated that the congregation as a whole had always been receptive to his sermons against sin.
That is, they were very receptive so long as he preached against sin in general, or sins common among people in the world, or minor sins of imperfection of which virtually every human is guilty. However, one day Brother Phil decided to quit preaching about sin in general and start preaching seriously against specific sins that he realized were present in the congregation. He went through the various New Testament commandments that many, if not most, of the members were disobeying. The result?
Within six months, the congregation fired Brother Phil. What Brother Phil learned the hard way is that many Christians imagine that humility means believing in such theological doctrines as the utter depravity of man. They think humility resides in our mental processes rather than in our hearts. It's easy to say that we are sinners who can do no good. However, how we respond when someone talks to us about specific sins in our lives reveals how much humility we really have.
So let's see what we find when we move beyond hollow humility.