According to an article by Jennifer Porter in the Harvard Business Review, self-reflection is an important aspect of growth and maturity (Porter, 2017). The author suggests that the first step in being more reflective is to identify important questions to answer about ourselves. I would suggest that some of the most important questions to ask ourselves are related to pride and humility, and my reasoning is grounded in God’s clear response that He “opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6, NIV). Therefore, we should take seriously the fact that pride is in direct opposition to God, but that He shows favor to the humble. My intention in this post is to provide a basic foundation for exploring the issues of pride and humility in our lives. The text for today is found in 1 John 2:6 (NIV), “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did”.
A good place to start in looking at the issue of pride and humility is to define the terms. Merriam-Webster (2021) defines pride as “a feeling that you are more important or better than other people,” Interestingly, humility is not as clearly defined in the dictionary, as it is more just described as the absence of pride. Even I am a little surprised at how incomplete and subjective these definitions seem to be for such important characteristics. If pride is just a feeling about being better than someone else, what if you are better than someone in something like running or spelling, is that still being prideful to have those thoughts? Or is it more about if we brag about our talents, but that is more related to being boastful, than prideful. And if we lack that feeling of pride, is that really what we mean by being humble? I think that the lack of definition for humility leads us to seeing humility synonymous more with being inferior, or self-loathing, or lacking self-esteem. And even these definitions are not accurate or sufficient.
Unfortunately, without God as a context for the terms, these definitions are incomplete. Matthew Henry describes pride as “resisting God; in his understanding he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the laws of God; in his passions he resists the providence of God; and therefore no wonder that God sets himself against the proud”. So, pride ultimately is more about exalting ourselves in comparison to God, than in seeing ourselves better than other people. And Andrew Murray (1895) provides insight into how to define humility through a Biblical lens by noting that humility is “acknowledging the truth of his position to God, and yielding to God his place” (p. 7). So, humility goes beyond just lacking pride, and it is more clearly defined as being in full submission to God as the Creator and sustainer of all of life.
But what does being in full submission to God really mean? This is where the text for this writing is helpful: “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” 1 John 2:6 (NIV). Throughout scripture, Jesus demonstrates humility by being in full submission to the will of God in everything he did. As an example, in John 10:17-18 Jesus states that “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (NIV). In commenting on these verses, John MacArthur (2006) notes that Jesus “demonstrated His love to the Father by becoming obedient to the point of death, even on the cross” (p. 434). So to be in full submission to God is to surrender our will to Him, and in humility be fully obedient to God in all things.
To even begin to understand the magnitude of Christ’s submission to God, one needs only to look to the first chapter of John where it is articulated that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3, NIV). In these few verses it is revealed that Jesus Christ, as part of the Godhead and in full equality to God, and in existence at the beginning of creation, demonstrated his obedience and love for the father through being in full obedience to the Father in His death and resurrection as a sacrifice for our sins, and that Christ’s humility and sacrifice is a necessity for us to be reconciled to God (see John 6:38-40). Andrew Murray (1895) notes that Christ led an “entire life of submission and dependency on His father’s will” (p.14), and that this “allowed Christ to do His father’s work- no matter what man said or did” to Him. Therefore, so, to live as Jesus did is to humble ourselves in full submission to God, and “to learn from Christ, to yield to the father in perfect resignation and dependence in all circumstances, regardless of our positions or titles, or even our wants and desires, and without regard to what others think or do to us” (Murray, p. 15). To think that Christ, even as part of the Godhead and in full equality to God, humbled himself to the Father, and that so much more we need to humble ourselves before the living God.
Reflection: Thinking about questions to ask yourself about pride and humility.
The concepts presented here related to pride and humility only touch the surface related to the topic of pride and humility in the Bible. How will you be more intentional in learning about these essential topics in your ongoing journey along the narrow path?
In reflecting back on a more Biblical definition of pride, how does pride show itself in your life?
What steps will you take to continue to strive to live a humble life in Christ Jesus our Lord?
Think about reading through the book of John with intentionality to observing and meditating on how Jesus demonstrated complete humility and obedience to the father, so that we can better understand what it means “to live as Jesus did”.
Psalm 95:1-7 (NIV)
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Resources:
Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry Commentary, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=james+4%3A2&version=NIV&resource_entry=matthew-henry/Jas.4.1-Jas.4.10&tab=study
MacArthur, John (2006). The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: John
Merriam-Webster (2021) Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online. https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Murray, Andrew (1895/2005). Humility and Absolute Surrender.
Porter, Jennifer (2017). Why You Should Make Time for Self-Reflection (Even If You Hate Doing It). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/03/why-you-should-make-time-for-self-reflection-even-if-you-hate-doing-it
The Holy Bible. New International Version.