Loving Requires Humility
When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom
Proverbs 11:2
I want to share a lesson, one I already knew but one I have failed to faithfully live by. It is the lesson of Pride, Judgment and Humility. I had found myself becoming more critical of others and slowly becoming a secret evil judge of hearts and only seeing the imperfections in people’s lives, their walk with God or even their practice of religion. While we are indeed to judge righteous judgment using the Word of God, this went way over the top. It was pride and the polar opposite of Godly humility that was at work in me.
I have always been a “glass is half empty” type of man, focused on what needs to be improved and not resting on my laurels as it pertain to business matters. While this may serve me well in business, when we begin judging things and other people especially, we bring judgement upon ourselves. This is a sure-fire way to lose your peace with God instantly as Jesus tells us.
Luke 6:37-38 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” You have heard we reap what we sow and that is the same thing Jesus says here in this passage. You can substitute any action you want in the bolded verse 38. You want love give it. You give hate, you will get hate. You sow stress, you will get stress back so we need to choose wisely how we live.
We cannot walk in love and obey the Royal Law of God if we are prideful. We will judge others, be critical of things and think more highly of ourselves than we should. This is one of my weaknesses, one the enemy has used quite effectively during my life and one God has awakened me and challenged me to surrender this to Him. I am working it out with fear and trembling trusting that God will finish the good work He has begun in me. Jesus defined the Royal Law as Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself. John reminded us of this as did James.
1 John 4:7-8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
If we act or think pridefully we cannot fulfill this law. As an expert on prideful living I can say the root of a judgemental or critical spirit comes from pride. This is chief scheme of Satan, the very one that got him kicked out of heaven and that he used to deceive Eve and even tempt the Lord in the desert. All Christians need to be on guard for the wiles of the devil. It has been my experience and the experience of the Apostle Paul as he wrote to us that pride can sneak into our lives and derail our walk with God. I am writing on this topic again as it has proven to be a continuing struggle for me and I suspect many other Christians. Understanding a problem is the first step in finding a solution.
Once God begins to reveal the truth to us in greater ways, the Devil is always there to come and get us to bite the hook of spiritual pride. If we start thinking we are pretty smart and got it all (knowledge of God) figured out, there should be alarm bells going off inside our spirit. No man has all the light, we only have what God has chosen to give us. We are all nothing by ourselves but serve a purpose only in the Body of Christ.
Romans 12:3-6 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them
Peter told us that we must always be on our guard because the devil walks around like a roaring lion looking for Christians to devour. Pride will devour us and lead us into rebellion and walking in judgment of our brothers and sisters. That is why the Scriptures warn us repeatedly about pride and the need for us to humble ourselves.
God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble
All the Apostles warned us about becoming prideful. The warnings are nearly identical and I believe the repetition was put there by God for a reason. Here is how Peter put it.
All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Living in an evil world is hard enough but if God is resisting us just imagine how stressful life will be. That is not the easy yoke and light burden that Jesus promised us, IF IF we humble ourselves and put our trust in Him alone. God sends this trouble upon us to bring us to repentance, and submit all of ourselves to Him. God wants your whole heart and if we begin walking in idolatry, including pursuing selfish ambition, approval of men or any sense of self-righteousness, the enemy will come and puff us up and trouble will soon follow. You see this all the time and many a Bible guru has become nothing more than evil judges of hearts and actually destroy the kingdom of God all the while they think they are doing God a favor.
We Humble Ourselves
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross!
Jesus showed us the way of life. Jesus humbled himself and never acted out of pride or selfish ambition. He obeyed the Spirit in Him even to the point of death on the cross. We are to walk as Jesus walked. If we choose to follow Jesus, we are to deny ourselves and pick up our own cross daily. That means walking in humility my friends.
A very important aspect of humility (the opposite of pride) is that we must humble ourselves. It is folly for us to pray that God will grant us humility. The Scriptures are very clear on this – we must do it. It is our choice to submit to God or not. True faith is trusting fully in God and thereby surrendering our will to His will and letting the Holy Spirit lead us. It is by the grace of God that we have the ability to supernaturally do this, it is not a work of the flesh. But know this, if we do not humble ourselves, we simply cannot please God and we will really be out to please our flesh instead. Paul explained how we walk with God in his famous verse from Galatians.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
Satan will do all he can to keep us from submitting to God. Pride is a favorite scheme as has been said. The end result of a prideful heart is the opposite of love, it is heart full of judgment and criticism. I have caught myself going down this path and I publically repent to all and my God. Do this and call ourself a Christian and we are just another hypocrite.
When we are living in torment or lacking peace, we are fault and are operating out of the will of God. Do not blame the devil, while he may be involved in carrying out God’s chastisement, the problem lies with us and our right standing with God. This not to dismiss the trials of life that we must overcome but it is indeed how we respond to those trials that tells God where our heart really is. God is our healer, our comforter, protector but He requires the surrender of ourselves to Him. That is true humility and is the opposite of pride. Listen to what the Lord told Israel at the initial dedication of the Hebrew Temple under King Solomon’s reign. In this verse, God says that when He brings judgment (drought, locusts, plagues), He is doing that to get our attention because we are out of His will. God then tells us what we must do to come back into His presence.
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
This is the love of God, to discipline and chastise us to bring us back to repentance and right standing with Him. Humbling ourselves is essential.
I love the Book of James as it is an easy read with crisp and clear instructions for godly living. James tells us how to overcome the devil and purify our heart and again tells us the requirement for us to humble ourselves.
James 4:7-13 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
So understand God brings calamity upon us. It is His way of getting our attention when we are out of step with His will. Lack of humility before God is frequently an issue if someone is living a life of stress and no peace. Examine yourself to see if you are acting out of pride, selfish ambition and leading ourselves and not being guided by the Holy Spirit. If we are ensnared by pride and selfishness and continue to rebel and do not humble ourselves God ratchets up the judgement upon us until we either respond or ultimately we are destroyed. The story of Pharaoh is just one example of this. Pharaoh ignored repeated warnings to humble himself before God and ultimately was destroyed and his heart was continually hardened as his rebellion lingered. Don’t play with fire.
Exodus 10:3 So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
God sends the trouble, it is how He tests us, it is when we respond with humility and not pride that we truly receive His blessings. If we act out of pride, we not only miss the blessings, we are further chastised and brought under judgment until we do respond. This is the love of God, He is calling us to repentance, we must choose to serve Him and not ourselves. Understanding how pride and humility work together with God’s grace is an important lesson.
Deut 8:2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
If we want to be exalted by God, we must humble ourselves. In one of Jesus’ classic riddles he said this:
Matthew 23:12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted
This is the exact opposite of worldly logic that teaches us to build ourselves and seek esteem and approval from our fellow man. Jesus said the least of us here on earth would be the greatest in His kingdom. If we exalt ourselves in this life, we will have no reward in heaven, we will humbled on the day when He comes again and may not be worthy of entering His kingdom.
Salvation belongs to the humble. Death and hell belong to the prideful.
Psalm 149:4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people, He will beautify the humble with salvation.
2 Samuel 22:28 You will save the humble people but Your eyes are on the haughty (prideful) that You may bring them down.
To walk in love and fulfill the Royal Law we must overcome pride. We do this by loving God with all our heart. When He has it all, there is nothing left for ourselves and that is His will. Self love and selfishness must be put to death and when it is pride does not exist.
