Godly humility versus what many think it is

Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth –(Numbers 12:3)

The scripture tells us that Papa Moses was more humble than any person alive. Now here is the lesson I was taught years ago. Who wrote this Numbers 12:3? It was Papa Moses. Now if you wrote in this post or anywhere that you are the most humble person on earth, would readers consider you humble? Absolutely not! Some would say you were proud for saying that. Why? Because most people have a faulty definition of humility which fits more with popular culture than it does with scripture. To these, humility may be debasing oneself or allowing people or circumstances to walk over you. But this is not true. Humility is what the story of Moses (the most humble man to live in his generation) teaches us. It is simply whole hearted agreement with the Truth. What is Truth? Truth is Jesus and what He says through His Word and His Spirit. Because Moses had received inspiration from the Holy Ghost that he was the most humble man on earth, he agreed with the Holy Ghost and wrote it. Many of us may not have written such a statement to the people we were leading be it in our homes or businesses for fear of man that others might say we are proud. But his agreement with the truth was the true mark of humility. Not writing it would have been pride. Whenever we agree with and obey the Holy Ghost in our thoughts, speech, actions and character, we are being humble.

Let us consider another example. When the three Hebrew boys refused to disrespect God but rather disobey the king, they were being humble. To obey the king at the expense of disrespecting God would have been pride. As long as a person is speaking or acting in agreement with the Word (like Moses), he is being humble no matter what it may look like outwardly. Humility is agreement with the Truth from your heart. If the Truth says love your spouse, then love her and you will be deemed by the Truth as humble. Anything else is not being humble. If we belittle ourselves but in our hearts we are kicking against the Truth, we are NOT humble. Humility is the disposition of the human heart to be in agreement with Truth at all times. Humility is a heart matter but some erroneously think it’s an externals matter. If your heart is right, your external behavior will line up. But if your heart is not right but your external behavior pretends, that is not humility. Only God knows the truly humble because he alone knows our hearts.

That is why Grace is given to the humble i.e. those who live in agreement with the Word. Such people will not abuse the grace.

If anyone wants to study humility, study the life of the most humble man of his time–Moses. He was not a pushover but he loved people and strove to obey God always.

On a different blog platform, i was challenged by a reader to have used Jesus example instead. He says, Jesus made himself of no reputation and so must we and Jesus was also obedient to the death. This is a common answer I get when i try to define humility. But let us consider my response to this well meaning but wrong commentator:

Dear Brother, Interesting perspective you have! As I tell all my readers, your feedback is indeed very welcome and appreciated. That notwithstanding I do have a few remarks about your exegesis to make and I beg your indulgence to be patient and read through the following comment. I acknowledge that your comment was intend simply to throw more light on the post and you did not mean anything negative by it. Likewise my comment is also in the spirit of the pursuit of truth and love.

First, I think it is not right to quote scriptures out of context and i believe you have done so in your comment and thi smay mislead readers so as the convener of this post it is my responsibility to correct that. If i leave it that way it is, it may do great harm to people’s understanding of balanced Truth.

Jesus did not always make himself of no reputation on earth and he was not obedient unto death in his day to day living UNTIL the particular time at the end of 33 years around passover season when God the father showed him it was time to die. He only did what he saw the father do. Before this time, let us consider some of how he lived. Consider the following scripture for instance:

But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way (Luke 4:30)

Death came knocking on Jesus’ door prematurely. The Jews wanted to stone and kill him but he escaped it. If humility is allowing people to do as they wish to you at all times and being obedient to death always, why then did our Lord escape and not just submit to what the people wanted to do to him?

The answer is simple. Doing that would not have been in agreement with the truth or God’s will for him at that time. These people wanted to stone him but that was not God’s plan so Jesus did not submit to their wishes. If Jesus had allowed them to do to him what they wanted to him, he would have been in disagreement with thewill of God and hence he would have been operating out of pride and not humility which I defined as agreement with the will of God or agreement with Truth.

Now you say, he was of no reputation. Again this is taken out of context. The only time he made himself of no reputation was when it was time to die according to the will of God at the age of 33. Prior to this, he dined with tax collectors and went to weddings and demonstrated his miraculous power in public places. Mat 4:24 shows us that his fame i.e. reputation went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. His reputation aided him much like Pastor Chris’ also brings people to the healing school. There is nothing wrong with reputation as long as it is submitted to God and used to do the will of God.

The only reputation Jesus emptied himself off whiles here on earth was that of his heavenly nature as Son of God. Whiles here on earth, he preferred to be known as Son of man. He emptied himself of that but he used his earthly reputation as Matt 4 shows us. It was only when it was time to die that he put away the earthly reputation also and allowed himself to be captured and killed for a higher purpose. He did not because he wanted to be lowly but because he had a job to accomplish on the cross. For the price that lay before him, he laid down his life. Lowliness is erroneouly thought to be an external attribute. It is not. It is a disposition of the heart and only God can judge the heart.

I can go on and talk about how Paul and others refused to be obedient to death when the time was not right. I could talk about how  in Acts 22, Paul used his Roman citizenship i.e. his reputation to escape beatings and possible death. Why did he not just allow the people to do what they wanted to him? Again the answer is simple. It would not have been in agreement with the will of God at that time. If humility is as you say, he should have been obedient to the death and beatings and not use his reputation as a Roman to get out of the situation.

What is the end of the matter? The end of the matter is the will of God. We are to know our Shepherd’s voice and obey it always. This obedience or agreement with Him is what humility is about—not what we do by the exercise of self. Humility is a disposition of the heart which bears fruit externally based on the will of God.

There is a time and a season for everything under the sun. When Jesus allowed others to spit on him, he was being just as humble as when he took a whip and whipped all those persons who were selling in the temple and overthrew their tables. This same Jesus looked at the religious leaders of his day and called them vipers and challenged their laws. That too was humility. But many cannot recognize this aspect of humility because of our onesided definition of humility that does not tally with the life of Jesus himself. Let us seek out the will of God for ourlives daily and live it. This obedience to him is the sure path of humility.