An Inquiry into the Nature of Humility - Part I

While my blog entries are often the result of whatever happens to be on my mind, it is a happy day when one of my brothers or sisters has a legitimate question that I can help to answer.  Today happens to be such a day.  Immediately upon thinking about the question, multiple thoughts and shades of meaning presented themselves to me, and I realized that a proper answering of the question would require something like this blog entry.  Then I thought, why write merely in private when others might be edified through a public writing?  So here it is... (in parts because my writing started getting too long.)


What is the question?  I will quote the email I received earlier...


"Humbleness is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less."
I've been seeing it on facebook a lot lately. I think it makes sense from a worldly perspective, but looking through the lens of Jesus Christ it doesn't. Thoughts? ... I am curious to hear what your response would be. 



First, I want to commend my brother on desiring a Biblical perspective.  In googling the quote, it looks like Rick Warren has said it, and maybe Tim Keller, too.  Both are pretty legit guys.  I'm not sure if they're quoting some more original source.  Either way, we ought to care far more about what Scripture says than in a pithy quote or in a saying from one of our favorite preachers.  Indeed what does the Bible say about humility?  (And the flip side of that - what does it say about pride?)  Getting an informed perspective from Scripture is a good prerequisite for directly addressing the question of the above quote, even if that takes a little time and seems roundabout to some.  Indeed, there is no great prohibition on skipping to the end of this entry, though the good stuff is certainly in the bolded words of God in the middle.


My selections of verses on humility and pride are simply a few of the many.   The overwhelming consensus of the Bible is that God is against pride and in favor of humility.  Pride is manifestly a sin, putting ourselves in the place of God, and humility would be its opposite virtue.    Let's examine some verses and let the Word of God speak. 


He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?   (Micah 6:8)


Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  (Proverbs 16:8)

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (James 4:10)


For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  (Luke 14:11)


All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.     (Isaiah 66:2)


And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."    (Matthew 18:3-4)


In these verses we see that we must walk humbly with God.  We see that pride's destination is a fall and that humility's destination is exaltation by God.  We see that when God looks for a servant, he finds and uses those who are humbled before his Word.  Indeed, child-like humility is necessary to enter the Kingdom.  Moreover, the following verses from Isaiah 2 about the day of the Lord show powerfully God's preference for humility and commitment to flatten the prideful.


⁶ For you have rejected your people,
      the house of Jacob,
      because they are full of things from the east
      and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
      and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
⁷ Their land is filled with silver and gold,
      and there is no end to their treasures;
      their land is filled with horses,
      and there is no end to their chariots.
⁸ Their land is filled with idols;
      they bow down to the work of their hands,
      to what their own fingers have made.
⁹ So man is humbled,
      and each one is brought low—
      do not forgive them!
¹⁰ Enter into the rock
      and hide in the dust
      from before the terror of the Lord,
      and from the splendor of his majesty.
¹¹ The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
      and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
      and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

¹² For the Lord of hosts has a day
      against all that is proud and lofty,
      against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;
¹³ against all the cedars of Lebanon,
      lofty and lifted up;
      and against all the oaks of Bashan;
¹⁴ against all the lofty mountains,
      and against all the uplifted hills;
¹⁵ against every high tower,
      and against every fortified wall;
¹⁶ against all the ships of Tarshish,
      and against all the beautiful craft.
¹⁷ And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
      and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
      and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
¹⁸ And the idols shall utterly pass away.
¹⁹ And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
      and the holes of the ground,

        from before the terror of the Lord,

      and from the splendor of his majesty,
      when he rises to terrify the earth.

²⁰ In that day mankind will cast away
      their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

      which they made for themselves to worship,
      to the moles and to the bats,
²¹ to enter the caverns of the rocks
      and the clefts of the cliffs,

      from before the terror of the Lord,
      and from the splendor of his majesty,
      when he rises to terrify the earth.
²² Stop regarding man
      in whose nostrils is breath,
      for of what account is he?

We see here a huge, majestic, and - quite frankly - terrifying picture of a God who promises and vows to destroy idolatry, of a LORD who hates pride and will one day destroy and flatten anything or anyone that would rise as a competitor for his glory.  Mankind will shake and hide in the presence of such blisteringly bright holiness.  What would our lives look like if we could only get a glimpse of that day?  (And what is this Scripture, but God graciously giving us that glimpse so that we might repent!) 


A central verse that ties this passage together is verse 17.  In this verse we see the very point of humility - the exaltation of the LORD.  The point of humility is the glory of God, that God would be seen and treasured and worshipped among his creation for all the he is.  In Romans 3:23 Paul declares the universality of sin among the human race and also reinforces this truth - that at its root sin is a belittling and a falling short of the glory of God:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

The universe is all about the glory of God.  Following a long, deep explanation of God's breathtaking design in our salvation through Jesus, Paul bursts forth into instructive praise in Romans 11: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  ...For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever.  Amen.  That is why we exist, why we were created, why we continue exist.  All the stars in the heavens, all the fish in the sea, every created thing exists to bring glory to its Maker.  I could run to dozens of verses there as well, but that would take my blog into book-length proportions, and I will spare you.  Trust me - it's all about God.  It's all about his glory and not our own. 


But I can't resist just one...  It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declared the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.  (Ezekiel 36:22-23)


I argue that no one can be truly humble at the point of sinning, and that by its very nature, sin is a grab for self-exalting preference and power.  You cannot be simultaneously treasuring God in your heart and bowing before him while also sinning.  Pride, therefore, is at the heart of sin.  Sin in its very essence is a belittling of God's glory.  Therefore, humility is an essential ingredient to the very point of our existence - glorifying God - while pride is rebellion against that.  Humility is something like the soil in which all of our other virtues grow, just as pride is the soil in which all of our vices grow.  We glorify God by being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and all of our progress towards that end will be seen to not really be much progress at all if we are growing in pride all along the way.


The conclusion: we should be humble.