Jun 16, 2023 Our Love-Hate Relationship with Humility – Words of Grace – June 16, 2023
“Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another… Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.” -1 Peter 5:5,7
Everyone wants to be humble, but no one wants to be humbled.
To be humble can imply that we humbled ourselves, which makes us feel good. We love proud humility.
To be humbled implies that it happened to us by some humiliating experience. We loathe painful humiliation.
So, what are we to do? The Apostle Peter tells us to humble ourselves, but not to be proud about it. He doesn’t tell us to seek to be humbled by some embarrassing misstep or self-imposed misfortune. But, because we are commanded to humble ourselves, there must be a road to humility for us to follow.
The way to humility is not through self-willed virtue nor self-inflicted pain, but through seeing God in Christ.
Every person recorded in the Bible who saw God was humbled. Those who saw him with the eyes of faith came to possess a happy humility. They bowed low, then were lifted up, no longer to think much of or about themselves, but of God and his grace.
There is no place like the cross of Christ that keeps God’s grace before our eyes and humility in our hearts. The cross of Christ simultaneously brings us low and lifts us up. Before the cross, humility is not a thing we assess with love or hate, it is a thing we come to possess. Before the cross, we hate our sin and love our Savior. We learn to walk humbly with our God.
The place to start is not with trying to be humble or avoid humiliation. Start with God’s grace at the cross of Christ. Understand the cross as the place where God in Christ accomplished your salvation. Embrace the cross as your hope Remain before the cross as your place of worship. Carry the cross as your call to discipleship. Then you will have little thought of loving or hating the quality of humility, you will simply be humble like the One who humbled himself for you.
Let’s pray this weekend for a happy humility to characterize us at Grace Community Church.
-Scott