Pursuing Humility

This blog post is added mainly for parents of teens who are sending their son or daughter to our Student ministries on Wednesday nights at Handke. It is a value of GCF to partner with parents and we see the church's role in your son or daughters life as supplementary. Thus, by reading this blog you can have a better understanding of what they are being taught from Scripture and the ways you might be able to discuss the lesson with them. Of course, since these studies are richly rooted in biblical content it will be helpful for anyone desiring to study the Bible.

Marks of Pride and Humility:

Pursuing Humility

Philippians 2:1-11 “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

1 Peter 5:5-7 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, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Doctrine and Character

It is important to have sound doctrine and sound attitude/character. You may pursue right things but your motives, tone, tactics, and methods could still be bad if your attitude or character is bad.  In this case, a humble pursuit isn't humble if it isn't done humbly. Christianity demands that  we grow in our knowledge of doctrine but also in the character that matches that doctrine. Here are a few things we can say about pride and humility:

Marks of Pride and Humility

Pride originates with Satan and therefore it is demonic. We were born in sin and pride. Thus, any humility in us at all is the miraculous and gracious work of Jesus. Adam was the man who insisted on being god and Jesus is God who was content to be treated as a man, a sinful one at that. Jesus is the reversal of the prideful inclination, the only hope for mankind to pursue and achieve humility by the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Pride is the encouragement to compare ourselves to other people.  Compare yourself to Jesus instead of people that you measure up well against.

Pride covets the success of other people. Pride leads to jealousy, envy, and covetousness when they succeed. Humility, on the other hand, leads us to celebrate it. 

Pride is about “me.”  What I think, feel, declare, want, desire, need, or feel I deserve.  Humility is about other people. About someone else when your natural inclination is to be selfish.

Pride is about my glory.  Pride says: “Do you know who I am?” “Do you know what I’ve done?” Humility is about the glory of Jesus Christ. Do you know who Jesus is? Do you know Jesus? Honor Jesus? respect Jesus? want to be like Jesus? Pride says “I am god.” 

"Humility is not about being God, but its about celebrating the fact that the real God has lovingly served me. 

Pride leads to arrogance, cockiness, smugness, and it’s repugnant. Humility leads to confidence instead of arrogance. Biblical confidence means I am able to live my convictions. I wont disagree with Scripture. I wont dishonor Jesus. I’m confident in what is right and wrong, in what is true and false, in what God has me to be and say and do." Mark Driscoll

Humility often gets associated with weakness and compromise. Nothing can be further from the truth. Only someone who is humble can have a deep conviction and not compromise. Why? It is because humble people are worried about God more than themselves. Prideful people are often driven by the need to be accepted which leads to people-pleasing. It is pride that is guilty of weakness!

Pride is independence/autonomy. Sin insists on autonomy from God, ultimately governed by what we want. Humility is about dependence instead of independence. Dependence may seem like weakness but it isn’t. No one is truly independent, they are just deceived. Everyone is dependent on someone or something outside of themselves. Humility refuses to live under the illusion of “independence,” which is all it is. Humility leads an individual to choose the highest and greatest and most powerful most loving being to be dependent upon: the Almighty God. In other words, humility is wise, it is a good idea.

Pride leads to anxiety (1 Peter 5:5-7). The desire to be god and be independent of God is like a child who runs away from home and suddenly realizes that they have to be responsible for everything in their life that their parents took care of. The prideful person realizes that being god brings with it the weight of the world, for which anyone other than God is completely unqualified for.

Pride is pregnant with all kinds of sins. Pride is the root sin that leads to the fruit sin. If pride is the mother of all sin then humility is the mother of all joy.  Humble people are the only ones who truly have the possibility of being happy people. Why? Because only humble people surrender to God and find the joy of security of God’s love and assurance in their lives.

Pride is something that is achievable. Humility is something that God does in us and calls his people to pursue by faith (1 Peter 5:6). We never fully attain to humility until Jesus returns and perfects us: 

We are inclined to pride in two main ways:

1. We are born sinners and our very nature as fallen sinners is to be proud-rebellious, stiff-necked, and hard-hearted and self-righteous.

2. We live in a world that encourages nothing but selfish pride.  American culture purposefully and persistently endears our affections to the deception of the death of pride rather than the life-giving truth of humility.

Philippians 2:1-11 gives much needed and hard to find instruction on the glory of humility. It demonstrates the way humility builds and pride destructs. How humility is unity and pride is disunity. How humility is life and pride is death.  

Pride works itself out in “rivalry and conceit.” This means you are in competition for resources and information and power. Conceit means you are jealous of other people in the church. 

Pursuing Humility

Be convinced that you need to grow in humility.

Understand that if you do not pursue humility you will naturally be prideful. 

Humility is your responsibility to grow in with God’s help (1 Peter 5:6).

Look to Jesus who is the model of humility for sinners (Philippians 2:5-11). 

For Parents

It is the role of your parenting to shepherd your son or daughter's heart. This includes graciously pointing out the root and the fruit of pride in their life which can be very difficult for them to pinpoint on their own. Christians grow in their hatred towards pride as they see its devastating effects. 

Another way to endear your son or daughter to humility is to allow them to witness Christ in you. Surely, parenting is a tremendous way God exposes pride in a parent's heart so that they can pursue humility. Connecting your own negative behavior to your struggle with pride and confessing this to them will be greatly used by God to attract them to the sweetness of humility and the beauty of Christ. Teens can make some very immature mistakes and it can give parents the illusion that they are the only one in the equation who need growth. If this is the message your son or daughter is receiving they will sense your hypocrisy and fail to understand why they should, in this case, want humility for themselves. 

The gospel is good news and it encourages candidness. It gives parents and everyone the freedom to admit their imperfection as it suggests that all people are sinners who need to be saved by God's grace.